


House of Fears (A Halloween Choose Your Own Adventure)

by Dejahthoris



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Choose Your Own Adventure, Choose Your Own Ending, Halloween, Other, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 05:28:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 39,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21156368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dejahthoris/pseuds/Dejahthoris
Summary: A forest housing a broken bloody body. A basement full of sick games. A study hiding secrets.You and your friends just wanted to have a nice vacation together to celebrate graduating Domino high, but when your car breaks down, a hope to find help from the locals turns in to a nightmare come to life.A choose your own adventure reader insert for Halloween! This is mostly a horror/thriller themed piece but there is also an underline romantic twist. You'll get to choose between Yugi or Atem...but only if you can survive the story, of course.





	1. Intro (please read)

Hey everyone! So, I decided to kill myself these past two months and bust my butt to create this! My first attempt at a “choose your own adventure”, though I guess it was only a matter of time seeing as how reader inserts are all I write anymore haha.

Okay, I just want to mention a few things before we get started. First on the list is: please don’t be too harsh while reading this piece, this is my first time trying **_anything_** horror related. I have no idea if I’m any good at it, but this story popped into my head back in September and I knew I had to get it out. Also, on that same note, this whole story won’t be nearly as polished as most of my other works since, as I said, I had to haul ass to get this out before Halloween. As it is I wanted to post it on the 20th but that wasn’t happening. So anyways, please just take this as a fun Halloween adventure and nothing too serious. It’s a bit cheesy in spots because…well, this is Yugioh we’re talking about, it’s always cheesy. That being said I will warn you that there are some mildly disturbing themes, depictions of violence, and scenes where you yourself die if you choose the wrong path.

Now, on to how this story will work. It’s actually very simple, at the end of every chapter you will be presented with a choice. Only one of those choices will lead to a moment of safety and thus the continuation of the story. The other choices will lead to a painful demise. I will keep the chapter titles very different from each other so you can easily tell which one you have to click on next depending on your choice. To further simplify things, the chapters for each choice will be marked, example: Choice one: Hide in the shed. Choice two: Check the basement. Etc. That way you can easily keep track of what choice you’re currently on, make sense?

Also, as I said in the description, there will also be a bit of a romantic side story, if you will. There will be hints throughout the story that both Yugi and Atem have feelings for you and you will get to make choices near the end depending on your preference. Of course, if you like both boys you can always go back and reread those parts with the boy you didn’t pick the first time. In fact, I highly recommend it haha.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments. I would also love to see comments in general, even if you’re just cursing because you chose the wrong path for the third time, I would adore seeing everyone’s reactions! It took a lot of late nights to get this done and I’d love to see everyone enjoying it ^-^

Just two final notes before you start the story. I’m sorry but I did not include Honda/Tristan in this. I’m sorry I have nothing against his character but I already had a hard time keeping track of six main characters and I just didn’t see his place in this story. Lastly, in this AU Yugi and Atem are twins.

Now, without further ado, let’s get started with the story! Good luck, I hope you don’t die too many times~


	2. Start Chapter: Hamasaki House

“For the last time, Jonouchi, if you change my radio station I’ll break your fingers!”

The blond in question glared over at his girlfriend, rubbing the hand she had smacked as it crept closer to the radio dials. Mai turned her head, her sunglasses doing little to hide the glare she threw back at him.

“The road- Mai the road!” Anzu yelled, her nails digging into the leather car seats as a line of oncoming traffic closed in.

The wind slapping in from the convertable’s open top blew Mai’s curls about as she turned back to the road. “Relax, Anzu, I’m not going to wreck.”

The brunette muttered something under her breath before turning in her seat to look at you. “Sure I can’t convince you to switch seats?”

“Not in a million years,” you smirked back at her, earning an exasperated groan as she righted herself in the seat again.

At first, Anzu had asked you to sit upfront because she didn’t want to risk having a side-by-side seat to any “affections” Jonouchi and Mai might share, but you supposed Mai’s carefree driving was now the major factor. Beside you, you heard Yugi let out a small giggle at the antics going on in the front seat. On your other side, Atem mumbled something about Jonouchi not making it to the hot springs in one piece.

Perhaps being stuck in the same car as one another for almost four hours would take its toll, but it would be well worth it in the end. You hoped. The resort had plenty to do including hiking trails, a game room, and even a sweet seaside village within walking distance to explore. The brochure definitely made it look like a vacation paradise, and when Atem had won two tickets for a week-long stay in the senior class raffle, a plan was quickly made so that all of you could share this springtime vacation. 

And here everyone was, all six of you piled into Mai’s car, lucky that it had bench seats in the front and back so all of you could squeeze in. You and the Mutou twins had done everything you could to make sure all the gang could go, considering that this could very well be the last trip you all might take together for awhile. High School was over, Jounouchi and Mai were already making plans to tour the country to play Duel Monsters professionally and Anzu would be going to New York in August. And truly, even without those facts, all of you needed this chance to relax.

Your eyes found their way to Atem almost subconsciously. He was leaning his chin on his hand, elbow propped up on the car door as he stared out at the countryside rolling by. When he gave a content sigh you smiled; he needed to get away for a while. Even though distance from the high school scene would help his plights, the rumors that had started there might follow him for a long time. Atem was known for a few things at Domino high: how he was a natural at pretty much any and all games, how high ranking his grades were, and how anyone who hurt his loved ones would pay a horrid price. No one liked to acknowledge that the last topic was well in Atem’s past. He had grown beyond those violent tendencies after their first year of high school, but the rumors still persisted. Given the story that had circulated about how he tricked the violent bully Ushio into stabbing his own hand, some students even liked to say that Atem was part of the Yakuza. Everyone, save for your little group and a very few choice students, had stayed clear of Atem all through your high school years as if he were some vengeful spirit that would lash out at them. The rumors had even earned him the nickname “Yami”. 

_ “I really hope this trip will cheer him up,” _ you remembered Yugi saying on your last day of school. He had been packing his books away and glanced over at where Atem stood, looking out of the window in his typical stoic manner. Yugi had been the main force behind Atem turning over a new leaf, in all honesty, though if you asked Yugi, he would say that he was the reason he had done most of those brutal things in the first place. Atem had always appointed himself as Yugi’s protector since the smaller boy had always been a target for bullies, but for a while, Atem would take things too far too often. Ultimately, Yugi’s kindness and forgiving nature was what made Atem alter his ways. Atem had admitted that to you personally one day, adding that he admired Yugi’s nature despite most seeing it as weakness. 

The twins weren’t the only ones who needed this trip though, Anzu was desperate to get away from Domino for another reason. Her good looks and sweet personality had attracted many a creep over the years (one of them Atem had dealt with personally) but the one who had turned into a full-blown stalker during the last months of the school year had to be the worse. The only reason she could sleep at night at all right now was because the guy had been caught while trying to break into her house two weeks ago. So called love letters had been stuffed into her shoe locker for weeks, all containing graphic details about...well, let's just say ‘pornographic’ was a grand understatement. A box of drug-laced chocolates later and Anzu earned herself a police car outside her house every night and her parents even let you and the gang sleepover at her house to help make her feel safer.

_ “Even though I know he’s caught, I still have trouble sleeping at night,” _ Anzu had admitted as you helped her back for the trip. It was understandable, seeing as how the man had been dragged away screaming about how he would find his way back to her someday. Poor Anzu had almost broken down into tears on Atem’s chest that night. Despite your assurances that she had every right to feel that way, you knew Anzu still felt ashamed of her fear.

Then there was Jonouchi, who had almost not been able to come on the trip at all. The poor dude never seemed to get any sleep lately- or rather, no sleep for the past couple years. He was one of the few students at school who got special permission to have a part-time job and he had spent the past two years hard at work. Between that, honing his Duel Monster skills for his dream job, and trying to keep his grades passable, it was a wonder he found time to hang out with the gang at all. For two years he had been saving every bit of his money for a good cause and tried to tell the rest of you that he couldn’t afford to spend money on the week-long vacation.

_ “I gotta look after my little sis, no one else will,” _ his eyes had shown multiple layers of regret when he gave that statement. Yugi, the amazing guy that he is, hadn’t even given a second thought before telling Jonouchi to take the free ticket Atem had given him. The blonde was so floored by his best friend’s gesture that you thought he was going to burst into tears and crush poor Yugi in a bear hug! With the brunt of the cost taken care of, Jonouchi could justify spending a handful of Yen on food and the like- besides, you, the twins, and Anzu had made a pact to pay for the boy’s meals now and then, without telling him, of course.

Mai, while not having money, reputation, or stalker troubles, still seemed to need this trip. Despite Atem’s past, out of your group of six, Mai was the one who was always...at arm’s length. At the start, her relationship with the rest of you had been strained at the best of times. One look at the things she said and the way she acted told you that she was used to being on her own and never depending on friends. Quite the contrast to your group, who supported and cheered for each other through thick and thin. In fact, it was only this past year when Mai truly started to cement her place in the group, mostly due to her dating Jonouchi, and even then she seemed to feel the urge to pull away at times.

_ “Oh please, you guys just want me to tag along because I have a car to get us there!”  _ her arms had been crossed in defiance as she turned her nose up at Anzu and Atem’s insistence that she come with the gang. It had taken a barrage of comments to convince her that you all wanted her to come because you wanted to spend time with her. You could tell she wanted to say yes, the longing concealed by uncertainty all there in her eyes, but she still gave an almost reluctant agreement eventually. You and the others agreed that this trip would be a last chance to show her that she was just as important to all of you as anyone else in the gang.

Yes, this trip was much needed by everyone. A chance to get away from the past, from responsibilities, from overzealous creeps, and to get closer to one another.

A bad bump in the road jolted you out of your musings- and sent the tablet in your hands to the floorboard. You muttered a curse under your breath and hoped the file you were typing on wasn’t lost. You really had to get better at pressing the save button before your mind wandered.

“You still working on that short story you talked about?” Yugi asked as you assessed the damage.

You sighed in relief when nothing was lost and looked to Yugi with a sheepish smile, “Yeah, I was hoping to get some inspiration on the trip and write some before bed at night.”

“You better not be on your tablet the whole trip,” Mai mockingly scolded from the front seat, “We’re going to have fun on this pampering trip even if I have to drag you to the hot spring!”

You couldn’t help but chuckle, “I don’t worry, I won't! You guys will have my undivided attention.”

The car lapsed into another silence and you took the time to read over the last paragraphs you had written before stowing the tablet away. It was your latest suspense story, one you hoped to publish online for others to enjoy but it wasn’t quite right yet. While you weren’t hoping for any creepy forests or haunted buildings, you thought the change in scenery would give you some inspiration to help improve the setting of your story; to make it feel more realistic to the readers.

Just as you were about to put your tablet back in your bag, you heard Jonouchi say something about how weird it was that you hadn’t passed any other cars in the last twenty minutes or so. 

“It’s just these old country roads, nothing to be all skittish about,” Mai assured.

“I ain't skittish, just weirded out. You’d think we’d come up on more cars.”

You took the chance to look around and understood why Jonouchi might be feeling ‘weirded out’. Before there had only been thick linings of trees on one side of the road, the other had been open fields promising the view of an ocean somewhere down the way. Now the path had turned inward towards the woods and dense forest now encroached on both sides of the road.

“I’m just following the GPS,” Mai sighed, eye roll evident in her tone, “we’ll be there in less than an hour, stop fussing.”

You felt Yugi shift beside you and turned to see him looking back into the forest on his side, practically hanging out of the window as if looking for something.

“What’s wrong, Yugi?” Atem asked from your other side, obviously taking notice too.

Yugi let out a confused noise, “Not sure, I thought I saw someone in the trees. A girl.”

“Who’d be hanging out in the trees all the way out here?” Anzu asked with a strange look as she too peered into the woods.

“There are a few country houses out here,” Atem suggested, “perhaps she was simply taking a walk.”

Yugi gave an unsure shake of his head, “It was just weird, she was wearing a white dress, I think it was like those old fashioned kimonos.”

Just as he settled back into his seat Mai let out a curse. A second later you knew why- the car was slowing down, despite Mai’s desperate efforts to keep it going. The car creaked to a halt and Mai yelled, slamming her fists on the steering wheel.

“What happened?” Anzu asked while Jonouchi hopped out of the car and went to open the hood.

“I don’t know! She’s in perfect shape and it’s not hot enough out here for her to overheat.

One by one everyone climbed out of the car and joined Jou by the engine. After a few moments, Mai (more gently than you would have expected) nudged him aside and looked for herself, muttering about her ‘baby’ being sick.

“That’s weird, nothing looks wrong,” the Jonouchi muttered when Mai couldn't find anything wrong either.

Anzu, trying to stay as positive as always, pulled out her phone, “It’s okay, guys! Mai said the resort wasn’t that far away, we can call someone to come get the car and get it fixed in town.” Her face and her spirits fell the moment her eyes landed on her touch screen. “Um, hey, does anyone have a signal? My phone can’t pick up one.”

You checked but you had a suspicion that it was hopeless even before you saw the symbol on your phone in red. A look up, and the look Yugi and Atem were giving each other confirmed that same on their ends.

“Really?! We finally get a weekend away and we get stuck out in the middle of nowhere!?” Mai yelled at the sky.

“Hey!” Jou cut in, “I ain't giving up on our trip that easily, I’ll walk to town for help if I have to!”

As the two started lightly arguing your eyes wandered the trees, an odd feeling seemed to emanate from them, though you tried to pass it off as your imagination.

“Calm down you two,” Yugi placated, “Jonouchi’s right, we’ll walk to town while the others stay with the car, we’ll be back on the road in no time!”

“Or,” Atem cut in, arms crossed, “we can ask the locals for help.” At everyone’s confused looks he jabbed his finger towards the forest. A closer look at the spot where he pointed showed a mailbox and a dirt path that cut into the trees. “I’m sure they have a phone we can use.”

Eager to avoid more arguing- and to get away from the creepy feelings he trees were giving off, you readily agreed. “Good idea, I’m sure they’ll be willing to help us.” You started walking towards the path, Atem following behind and not giving the others much chance to protest.

“Bu- but what if it’s a family of weirdos!?” Jonouchi called as Yugi and Anzu followed with Mai not far behind. “Hey guys! Don’t leave me behind!” 

He bolted to catch up to the rest of you just as you and Atem reached the mailbox. It was a faded green color and with kanji reading “Hamasaki” painted on its side.

You peeked down the winding dirt road and could see the hints of a roof somewhere down the way. Without a word, everyone fell instep beside each other and ventured down the road walled in by the thick forest. 

Sounds typical of a forest seemed to set everyone at ease as you walked, birds chirped and a woodpecker was knocking on a tree somewhere in the distance. Even some butterflies fluttered along the path, easing your mind. The path went on for a ways and a set of stone steps slowly came into view. As you guessed the slatted wood peeking through the trees was a roof and soon the forest parted to reveal a set of stone steps leading down to a traditional style house tucked in the trees.

It looked nice, though old, and the front door was open, indicating that someone not only lived there but was home. You heard Jonouchi sigh in relief beside you, obviously satisfied with how normal the house looked. The steps lead directly to the front door and you hopped into the front porch, daring only to lean in towards the open front door before calling out.

“Hello? Excuse me but my friends and I broke down on the road, could we use your phone to call for help?”

No answer.

Taking a risk, you placed one foot on the other side of the doorway and leaned in. You could feel the others peak in around you, Yugi and Anzu actually leaning on your shoulders to get a better look. The genkan area looked well-kempt and it led to a hallway with a staircase and several sliding doors along the walls.

“We’re sorry to bother you,” Yugi called out, “but we could really use your help!”

“Someone must be home, who leaves their front door open like this?” Atem muttered to himself as he scanned the area.

“Maybe they’re in a part of the house where they can’t hear us?” Anzu suggested.

Before you knew it, Jonouchi was pushing passed you and inside the house, “Good enough excuse for me. Besides, I gotta take a leak, bad!”

You and several others whispered shouted warnings at the blonde as he kicked off his shoes and bolted down the hall. As everyone seemed to try catching him before he got away, all of you ended up inside the home. 

“Jonouchi, you idiot! Get back here!” Anzu hissed as she slipped off her shoes.

“If they find you breaking into their house they’ll call the police you dummy!” Mai all but shouted.

After Mai got her boots off both women stepped into the hall and crept after him. You and the twins managed to follow after them but as they turned into a room that led to the engawa, you halted Yugi and Atem in their tracks.

“Let’s find the owner, before they find Jonouchi.”

Yugi nodded before looking about the hall, “Good idea, try the kitchen maybe?”

You looked around as well. Beside the stairs was the door leading to the living room and on the other side of the hall was a tatami room and more open sliding doors. There was a garden on the other side of the engawa and just as you were about to look away you saw something move out there.

“I think there’s someone in the garden,” you said, pointing through the door.

“I saw it too,” Atem added, “let's go together so they don't think we’re wandering their house for fun.”

You took the first step into the room with the boys right behind you. The garden was simple but pretty and as you scanned it and the trees enclosing it, you saw the figure again. It was a middle-aged man, bending over to smell some flowers by the forest edge. 

“Excuse me, I’m so sorry we entered you home without permission but we-” your call was cut off as the man didn’t seem to hear you and stepped into the forest! 

You yelled for him to wait, hoping to get his attention as you tried to push your shoes back onto your feet, jumped off the deck and jogged towards the forest. You heard footsteps behind you but knew it must have been the boys as you stopped at the line of trees. You were glad you had carried your shoes instead of leaving them in the genkan area, as the twigs would have surely wreaked havoc on the soles of your feet.

“Sir?” Your call was again answered by silence and there was no one insight between the trees no matter how hard you looked. “What the hell,” you muttered under your breath. 

It couldn’t have taken you more than ten seconds to get there, all while yelling the whole time. Who just disappeared into the woods?!

“Did either of you see where he went?” you looked back to Yugi and Atem- but your heart stopped the moment you turned.

They were gone.

Not just them. The house, the garden, it was  _ all _ gone. Thick trees met your eye, a collection of them standing side by side just like the woods the man had walked into. You turned on your heel again- surely you must have just lost track of your surroundings or something! You darted your head this way and that, turning and looking but it was no use, all you could see were trees.

You were lost in the forest.

**~**~**

**Continue to "Chapter Two: Broken Hana". Your first choice to save your skin is coming soon~**


	3. Chapter Two: Broken Hana

Most passions start with a story; some event that sparked their fire. Your passion started with a forest.

Well, sort of.

When you were a child, before you had moved to the city of Domino, you lived in a suburb that was practically the countryside. You had neighbors in your little cluster of houses, but everyone's backyards lead into a vast forest. Your parents had always warned you against going too deep into the woods, always worried that you would get lost, or worse.

Then there was Nami, he lived in the house beside yours with his father, and he was a mean little brat that loved passing his time by tormenting you. He'd do his damndest to frighten you, then mock you as if you were a baby if you so much as jumped in fright. However, the worst thing he ever did came about when you were six.

The fall day was warm and you were playing outside when Nami hopped the fence between your yards and stalked over to you. You of course, in all your six-year-old sass, told him to go away and scare someone else with his ugly face.

Said face took on a concerned look as he told you he wasn't there to tease you, he wanted to warn you. 

Warn you against what? 

The specter that had been sighted in the woods.

He proceeded to tell you about a girl's ghost who haunted the woods. Her name, was Broken Hana. She earned that name because she had been killed by her jealous boyfriend and he was so filled with rage that he broke bone after bone in her body even after she died screaming. Now she haunted the woods, dragging her broken body through the trees and snatching up any unsuspecting mortal to break their bodies too.

He had said it with such serious eyes that little you couldn't help but clutch the fabric of your shirt in fright. You tried to be rational and asked why you had only heard of the ghost now since you had lived there for years. He told you that monks had sealed her spirit away in a shrine in the forest, but now the seal must have been broken because two of your neighbors had spotted her bloody form while peering out their windows.

You tried to be rational, but six-year-olds rarely are. Two days later he again jumped the fence between your yards, frantically that time around, and tried grabbed your hand, begging for your help. He said his dog had escaped their yard and went charging into the forest. He wanted to go after the pup, but was scared to go alone because of Hana. You had always liked his dog, she was a sweet thing that licked your hand through the fence and, seeing the panic on Nami’s face, you agreed and both of you went running into the forest.

You should have known it was a lie.

He led you a ways in, until you spotted his father’s old tool shed and he said that the dog might have hidden in there. He held the door open for you, but the moment you were on the threshold he shoved you hard and you stumbled inside. He slammed the door shut just as you started pounding on it with your little fists. You heard his laughter as he clicked the padlock on the outside shut and said “Have fun with Hana!”

Only a few moments passed after his footsteps faded, then you heard the noise.

It was like someone dragging in a breath through their mouth, only pained and wretched. You turned towards the noise and saw red eyes peering at you from the darkness of the shed. A mound of awkward limbs and long black hair crouched in the corner and you screamed and sobbed and cried for someone to let you out as those terrible red eyes glared at you and that horrible broken breathing filled the air.

You were already a whimpering, tear-stained mess by the time you realized it was a dummy from the way it never moved. You hadn’t known it at the time, but Nami’s father was a prop maker and often worked on horror-themed set pieces. Nami had seen this terrible doll in his father's workshop and came up with his ultimate prank. He made up the story to fit the doll and even recorded ghost sounds from a horror movie to plant a recorder on the scene.

It didn’t matter that it wasn’t real at the time. You were there for hours, trapped with that thing. Its eyes stayed fixed on you no matter what corner of the shed you crawled to and those disgusting noise repeated over and over again. Finally, Nami’s father found you and carried you back home, promising his son would never bother you again after going that far.

Nightmares of Broken Hana persisted for days after that, you always waking in the middle of the night screaming. It was your mother who helped you through it. After a week of that, she curled up in bed with you in her arms and told you that it was okay to be afraid, but that people could overcome their fears if they could only find a way out. The next day she sat at an old typewriter with you in her lap and wrote a story about a child who got cornered by a vengeful specter. She told you to picture the scene in your head as best you could, then, told you to find a solution. Find a way out. You can’t even remember what childish solution you came up with, but it was good enough. She told you over and over that if you were ever scared, just keep calm and find a way out. That there was always a way out.

The dreams of Hana faded after that and were replaced with a fascination with scary stories. You were always looking for the solution, the way out, no matter what kind of story it was. It did wonders do dispel the terror and eventually, you became interested in spinning your own tales, creating new terrors for characters to work their way out of. The only thing that remained of the fear of that night was how unsettled you got when certain monstrous characters in horror movies moved in a way your overactive imagination pictured Hana moving. It didn’t matter that it hadn’t been real or that you hadn’t had a nightmare of her in years, it was still a scary mental image. 

Now, forests, that was the other thing that lingered. Certain wooded areas just gave you the creeps even to this day. So, suddenly finding yourself lost in one as if you had teleported there in the blink of an eye...well…

“Yugi? Atem!?” you tried to keep your voice from sounding frantic, hell, you didn’t even know why you were yelling for them when they and the house you had been in were nowhere in sight. “What the hell is going on…?” you whispered to yourself.

No matter how long or hard you looked, no matter what direction you turned in, you couldn’t spot the Hamasaki house anywhere through the trees. Before you could panic you took in a deep breath and looked up at the sky. I was still light out, thank god, and if you were remembering the layout of the house and the garden correctly, the house was likely north of the woods...maybe. Well, it was good a direction as any to start, you supposed. As you started walking you pulled out your keys from your pocket, it would be good to mark your path just in case. 

Taking one of the old, sturdy keys, you made little scratches on the trees as you walked. You were doing all you could to keep your nerves from going haywire, but seeing as how this forest had an eerie factor of ten even in daylight, that was proving a bit hard. It wouldn’t have been so bad if you weren’t alone, or if you had an explanation on how you got here.

The trees passed by over and over and soon it felt like you had been walking for an hour. There was still no house in sight. You sighed and contemplated turning around and start in a different direction. Just as you glanced behind you, something caught in your peripheral vision. Something red.

Your heart leapt into your throat as your eyes darted up into the branches of a tree and you actually screamed when your mind took in what you were seeing. 

There was a woman hanging from the branches.

Not just any woman. She looked exactly like that horrid doll from that horrid day. Like Broken Hana. Only when you felt pain in your back did you realize you had fallen to the leaf-covered ground in fright. You looked up at the figure, trying to keep your breathing even as those red eyes looked down at you. Long black hair was matted against her bloodied face, skin torn open by the broken bones on every inch of her body. Your limbs felt numb as you watched her sway back and forth from the rope around her neck.

A few heartbeats passed...and she didn’t move. 

Your breathing was still a bit labored as you tried to calm yourself. “It’s just- just a doll. All of this is some sick prank, just like before, just like-”

You swore your heart stopped beating when the woman’s lips curled into a sick grin.

Her broken arm made sick snapping noises as she lifted it and started working at the rope at her neck. You watched as she clawed at the twine, taking some of the pale skin on her throat with it as she tried to cut free. You couldn’t move, why couldn’t you move!? This had to be a nightmare- this had to be!

The rope broke and her body fell to the dirt with a few sickening snaps. Her face scraped against the ground as she twisted her head to look at you. Her mouth opened to draw in those wretched, pained breaths that haunted your dreams, and then, she was dragging her body towards you.

That was what your body needed to kickstart into action. You scrambled up from the dirt and ran, hearing the sound of her crawling after you at speeds only a horror movie could make up.

That garbled choked breathing echoed through the trees and you were sure you caught flashes of her black hair in your peripheral vision, spurring your legs to move faster. You knew she had to be behind you the whole time, you could hear it, but you were running as fast as you could, legs burning more with every step.

Then, something else caught your eye. You chanced the glance, terrified that you might see her when you turned. There, not too far away, was a shed. It looked familiar but that was hardly a concern right now. You turned to your other side, the sound of something dragging through the dirt right on your heels still persisting. On your other side the little forest path you had been on continued and it looked winding, but more beaten down, as if it had been walked more. Maybe it could lead to the house? But the shed, it was an immediate shelter. You only had a second to decide.

**~**~**

**Choice one: Run down the winding path, or Hide in the shed?**


	4. Choice 1: Run down the winding path

You had to make it to the house, besides, the shed would just corner you with that- that thing! If you could just make it to the house, if you could just find help maybe this nightmare would end. Your legs were aching but the adrenaline kept you moving as the sound of choked breathing sounded just steps behind you.

The branches were closing in tighter on the path and whipped at your limbs and face. You were sure your skin split open a few times but the hot rush in your veins made the pain only a dull tap for now. You focus on the ground, knowing that one wrong step would turn you into a horror cliche and you’d be at the mercy of Hana as you fell. A root leaped over here, a rock sidestepped there- god how long had you been running?!

Wait, when had the noises stopped?

You weren’t stupid enough to stop running but you chanced a glance behind you; just a glance, just for a second, you had to see. Warmth spread in your chest when you saw nothing but trees and green and dirt. You still wouldn’t stop but you laughed a sound of relief as you turned back to the road ahead and-

WHAM

Hot pain seared through your face as you were sent flying backwards. Your back made contact with the ground but you tried to scramble back to your feet; you had to keep moving! Pain made your vision blurry as you opened your eyes and saw a thick branch sticking out in the path, that must have been what broke your nose. However, the thing that truly caught your eye as you climbed to your feet was the thing at the end of the path. The house. The house was within sight! You started running again, ignoring the pain pulsating from your broken nose. Safety was in sight, you just had to hold on a little longer! 

Then, your hope went cold as you heard that sound again.

Your head whipped back as you heard a snap and a garbled moan and there she was- her face inches from yours! Something hard made contact with your foot and again you were sent to the ground in a heap. You landed on your face and couldn’t help but cry out from the pain. Vision blackening at the edges you tried to move, but something grabbed your feet.

You looked back and that horrible bloody face matted with black hair stared back at you! Nails bit into your skin as she sucked in a rasping breath, before she dragged you screaming back into the forest.


	5. Choice 1: Hide in the shed

The path was too winding, your fear of tripping like a scary movie stereotype was too great, so you bolted for the shed; the crunch of leaves still following at your heels. The thought that there may be a lock on the door didn’t occur to you until you were already at the door but fate smiled down on you as you were able to throw the door open with ease.

You slammed it shut behind you, seeing a flash of red and black just before the wood closed you in. A thud cracked against the door and your ears rang as you listened for any other noise, still holding the door shut with all your might. You heard that thing drag in another long, choked breath, sucking in air through lungs likely pierced by her own bones. As you heard something being dragged farther from the door, you looked to either side of you and wanted to cry in relief when you found a metal rod you could use to bar the door shut.

You needed a moment, you needed to think. With the door secure you took a broader look at the interior of the shed, but the more you looked, the more unsettled you were. The shed was familiar. It was that same shed you had been locked in all those years ago. The same pain smattered workbench, the same tubs of god knew what stacked in the corners, the same power tools hanging on the walls. 

“What the hell  _ is _ all this!” you practically screeched under your breath. But the question turned into a gasp as you heard the heavy dragging sound again.

Your eyes darted to the left, towards a window, and you felt the urge to sob as fingers started crawling up the pane. A broken arm followed and, as if she were dragging herself up the side of the building, Hana’s face crept up, those red eyes finding you in an instant. Her blood smeared against the glass, and her nails raked against it as she looked at you...and smiled again.

With an agonized scream, she pulled back and started slamming her head against the window. Again and again and again, all while screaming like she must have when her lover beat her to death. The sight was too much, your heart felt like it was going to burst from beating so fast, the hot adrenaline in your veins making your body shake as you found yourself collapsing on the ground

You pulled your legs up to your chin, not being able to rip your eyes away from the sight of her beating her head against the glass. It started to crack. She’d be inside soon. You didn’t even realize you were rocking back and forth until you started muttering to yourself, trying to say that this wasn’t real, that this couldn’t be real. She come crawling in and break you until you looked like her- oh god, your friends, you’d never see them again. You die in here screaming and they never know what happened to you. Killed by a child’s nightmare by something that had-

_ “There is always a way out.” _

Like a soft whisper, your mother’s voice came back to you from the past. Curled up in your tiny bed, her stroking your hair and willing away the bad dreams, and giving you the mantra that would keep them away.

There was always a way out!

With an effort that felt like swallowing sand, you forced your fear back into your stomach. Your hands still shook as you climbed back to your feet and took a sweeping look around the shed. This was Nami’s father’s shed. And Nami’s father had always liked welding.

You could still hear her face cracking the glass as you ran to one corner of the room. It was dark and you weren’t sure if she could see you, but the moment you started pulling your choices off the walls you heard a voice like gravel being dragged across cement.

“Caaaaan’t…hide...”

Fuck hiding. 

Despite your conviction, your heart still leapt into your throat when you heard the telling sound of glass shattering. You turned, with your weapon in hand and saw her dragging herself over the shards of glass still in the window. She fell to the shed floor and in an instant her head snapped into an awkward angle to look up at you.

The moment she looked however, you had a surprise. You pulled the trigger and fire burst forth from the flamethrower’s nozzle. She screeched as her hair caught the flames and ignited, taking her whole body with it. The monster writhed and screamed on the ground but you weren’t sticking around to watch her turn to ash. You bolted for the door, unlatching it and throwing it open.

You never thought you’d be happy to see the eerie forest but you were. Hana’s monstrous cries faded as you took the winding path, praying that it led back to the house. Truly, it was a miracle your attack worked, you had never worked such a tool and had less than a minute to figure it out. Still, you didn’t completely rely on your hunch that everything in the shed had to work, you had also grabbed a hunting knife and few other tools that might have given you a fighting chance.

Though those awful sounds of a dragging body and pained breathing never returned, you were still sure to watch where your feet were landing; the last thing you needed was a broken ankle.

Or a broken nose, which you almost got from a tree branch jutting out into the path, but you were able to dodge it in time. Then, you almost wanted to cry in relief when you saw it: the house. The house your friends were in was coming into view and soon enough you leaped out of the trees and into the garden.

Only then did you allow yourself to look back at the forest behind you. There was no sign of your monster. Still, something in you told you this wasn't the end, you still had no idea what the hell was happening here.

You needed to find the others. In a few steps you were back on the porch and walking inside. The house was deadly quiet. The lack of sound made a shiver claw up your spine as you willed yourself to move forward, the creak of the floorboards the only echo in the house. You didn’t want to call out to your friends, but how were you going to find them?

As if answering you, the moment you stepped out into the main hall sound finally came back to you on the stale air. There, in the direction Jonouchi and the girls had gone, there was a distinct sound of shattering glass. 

Just as you took a step in that direction, another sound echoed from the other side of the house. A scream. You turned back and your heart slid into your stomach when you saw a door under the stairs was left open. The scream had come from the basement. 

How could you choose what sound to investigate?

** ~**~ **

** Choice two: Check the basement, or Go down the hall? **


	6. Choice 2: Check the basement

You swallowed the lump that had collected in your throat the longer you stared at the basement door. You had to check it, that scream couldn’t be ignored. Your feet felt like lead as you approached the door, but you made it to the first step quickly enough. There was light down there at least, dim, but enough to keep the steps down from looking like a maw of darkness about to swallow you whole.

Careful not to alert whatever was down there, you crept down each step one by one. The basement itself looked normal enough, but very large, and cluttered with old furniture enough to fill the whole house over again and stacks of boxes like pillars in a colosseum. You listened, hoping to hear whoever had screamed, almost daring to call out but biting your tongue just in time. Stepping into the mass of dust-laden decor, you continued to strain your ears against the eerie silence.

You had just passed a settee wrapped in a sheet when you heard the sound of something scraping against wood. Like someone dragging the tip of a knife across a table.

You shook the thought from your mind, this was no time to be recalling all those slasher movies Jonouchi dragged everyone to go see on the weekends. The place was starting to look like an endless maze of unwanted junk and you worried you weren’t going to find anything, when you heard something else.

Someone hissing your name.

It wasn’t an intimidating hiss however and that was the only thing that kept your heart in your throat as you whipped around and searched for whoever called out. You nearly screamed when a hand wrapped around your arm and pulled you down, but a hand clamped over your mouth and muffled the cry. You started the thrash but the moment you did another hiss came, pleading in your ear.

“It’s okay! It’s me, Yugi!”

You stopped struggling in an instant and he let you go, allowing you to turn in your now crouched position and look at him. He looked pale and scared as a bunny cornered by a wolf. He had pulled you into his hiding spot, the underside of an old desk.

“Yugi, thank god I found you!” you whispered, cautious of whatever must have frightened him. “What’s going on?”

He shook his head. “I- I don’t know. We were following you out into the garden, then you were just- you were just gone! When we started looking for you we saw someone dart into the basement and the moment we got down here…” He swallowed hard, looking almost feverish as he peeked around the corner of the table. He whispered your name before meeting your eyes again, “Something’s wrong with him. It’s like he’s been possessed or something and I don’t know how to stop him!”

“Who? Yugi who the hell are you-”

The words were cut off as something smashed into the wood right above your head! Your screams mixed with Yugi’s as you both fell out from beneath the desk in a scrambling heap. Your eyes darted up as both of you crawled away from the splintering desk and your gaze met-

“Atem!?”

No, no it couldn’t be. Something was wrong. _ He _ was all  _ wrong _ ! His hands were still wrapped around the handle of the fire ax he had driven into the desk, his face was paler, his hair mussed and crazed looking, but the things that made you want to cower in fear, were his eyes. They were red as blood and glinted with something mad, something psychotic, and paired with the most sadistic grin you had ever seen.

“Not quite,” he chuckled in answer to your question, just before he ripped the ax out of the wood with an almost effortless motion. 

He sidestepped the desk and started advancing on your cowering forms in long but slow strides. You and Yugi managed to scramble to your feet and started running, but you only made it a few bounding steps before something tugged you downward.

“Look out!” 

Yugi pulled you down to the ground and you felt something cold graze the air above your head right before the sound of more wood splintering. You looked up and saw the ax buried in a support beam, with the horrid imitation of your friend’s face smiling down at you. 

“Naughty little brother, getting your best friend involved in all this,” he mocked, “I think both of you need to be taught a lesson.”

Again he ripped the blade out of the wood with ease and turned towards your prone forms. He was almost at arm’s length and raising the ax, but fight won over you paralyzed form. 

“To hell with that!” you kicked out with your leg and the heel of your shoe made contact with his groin.

He cried out and dropped the ax behind him, immediately doubling over in pain. Even possessed best friends had their weak spots, apparently. The distraction gave you and Yugi enough time to scramble to your feet and start running. The moment you two lost sight of not-Atem among the labyrinth of furniture you heard him call out with something like a cackle.

“Run all you want, I love giving chase!”

Your heart pulse in your ears as you ran through the clutter, you made to turn pass a stack of old crates but Yugi grabbed your arm.

“This way, I see a door!” he whispered.

You allowed yourself to be pulled the other way and Yugi held your hand tight as you closed it on a worn wooden door nestled along the wall. He didn’t let go of your hand even as he skidded into the door and started twisting the handle. It wasn’t locked, thank god and you two bolted inside but took care to shut it quietly, lest you be heard by your pursuer. It seemed to be an old boiler room, with the water heater and other appliances rigged up on the walls, but there was plenty of old furnishing stored here as well. 

After pushing a chair and some other heavy nicknacks against the door you turned to Yugi, who still looked pale and shaken, “What happened?”

“I don’t know. Like I said we came down here and almost instantly he...changed. I felt this weird shiver up my spine and when I looked over at him he looked like it was having a fit or something. His eyes turned red and he tried to…” You didn’t need him to finish the words, he simply shook his head and asked. “How are we going to get him back to normal?”

Your own horrifying experience was little help as a reference, possessed or not, you didn’t want to set your best friend on fire. “It’s not like either of us know how to do an exorcism, hell, we don’t even know if that’s what’s wrong with him.” You rubbed a hand over your face, looking around the old wooden beams on the ceiling. “It’s this house, I saw my worst nightmare come alive in the woods before I managed to escape. I think something’s just-  _ wrong _ in this house.”

Yugi’s brow creased as he met your eyes. “What’d you say?”

“I said I think it’s something in-”

“No, the thing before that, you said your worst nightmare came to life?”

His fervent tone almost gave you pause, but you saw that look in his eyes, his mind working out the puzzle placed before him. “You remember me telling you about Broken Hana? She literally chased me through the woods like some damn horror movie.”

Yugi’s eyes widened as he grabbed your shoulders, “That’s it! Our worst nightmares!” his eyes darted around as he thought, the cogs turning, “He isn’t Atem anymore, he’s Yami. He’s talked to me all the time about how scared he is that he might revert back to how he used to be and how guilty he feels for the things he did back then. And I…” Yugi swallowed hard, a sudden wash of shame darkening his features. “I’ve had a couple of nightmares about him being even worse than that...about him turning on us. I never told him but the dreams really scared me.” His eyes met yours again, “I think you’re right, I think this house is responsible, I think it’s preying on our worst fears.”

Your breath came out more shakily than you would have expected, even given the circumstances. “Well, considering I just had an undead horror villain chase me through the woods, I won’t say you’re crazy. But we still don’t know how to get Atem back to normal.”

“Well, how did you escape Hana?”

“I really don’t think you want to set your brother on fire, Yugi.” You actually had to smile at the shaky laugh Yugi answered with, humor mixed horror on both counts.

“Maybe I need to talk to him,” Yugi offered in a quiet tone, “I know that isn’t who he is, maybe if I could just get a chance to talk him down and-"

Yugi's words were cut off by the sound of splintering wood. Both of you jumped and wheeled round to see a blade cutting through the wood of the door by its handle. Somehow you both had managed not to scream, you might have time before he got in.

Yugi grabbed your hand again, as another crash against the door rang in your ears. "Hide!" he hissed, pulling you towards a rusted metal table by the wall adjacent to the door. 

There were slats of metal nailed between the legs, so you two had just enough cover to hide behind and watch when he got into the room.

"When he-" another crack of splintering wood made you jump, "when he has his back turned to the door, we'll make a run for it," you whispered to Yugi, who gave a nervous nod, just as another splinter of wood cracked the air, somehow sounding surrendering in nature.

You and Yugi watched through the metal slats as Yami finished off the door with a kick and stepped inside. The very air seemed to go still as he took a sweeping look around the room, that sick grin still plastered on his face. Yugi gripped your hand tighter as Yami’s eyes crossed over the metal table. 

It was enough to conceal you however, because he simply gave an interested hum and said, “Hide and seek then, is it? Very well, I do  _ love _ games, after all.” A chuckle that sent your skin crawling. “Maybe I’ll play a few more when I find you two.”

The floorboards creaked as he stepped farther into the room, back towards the boiler and some workbenches. You held your breath as you dared to peek out from the corner of the table, Yugi growing more and more tense behind you. Yami’s back was turned as he dragged the tip of his blade across the floor and looked behind any spot big enough to hide.

Staying low, you kept your eyes on the door, gripped Yugi’s hand tighter, and bolted for the door. It was only four steps to the way out, surely you could get there before he caught sight of you. You were already pushing Yugi through the door, all you had to do was close-

You let out a scream, pain ripping through your scalp as you were pulled back! Yugi called out your name as an iron gripped wrapped around your waist and something cold was pressed to your throat.

A deep chuckle reverberated in the chest your back was held to, “So cute, thinking you could escape me like that.”

You opened your eyes and saw Yugi still standing in the doorway, his eyes wide and horrified as Atem- no, Yami pressed a knife closer to your throat, the blade biting until you were sure it drew a bit of blood.

“Don’t!” Yugi called out, trying to step closer, but Yami jerked you back.

“Ah ah, little brother, don’t try to steal my prize from me.” Yugi’s tone turned more demanding, more angered as he demanded that he let you go, but again, Yami only chuckled. “Now, what to do with you…” the thing pretending to be Atem mused and you could feel his eyes looking you and Yugi over.

“I- I challenge you to a game!”

Well, that got Yami’s attention. You felt him straighten up behind you at Yugi’s challenge and when you looked, the look in Yugi’s eyes said that his determination was quickly winning again his fear.

“A game?” Yami replied, grin evident in his tone.

“That’s right. You like games, you said that’s how you used to punish people, right? Well, I challenge you. If I win, you let both of us go.”

Yet again your possessed friend chuckled darkly as his hand slid from around your waist to grip your wrist. “A wonderful idea, little brother. But you know what will happen if I win.”

“You won’t.” The confidence in Yugi’s voice was something you had never heard before; then again, you supposed if anything would kick up his need for such self-assurance, saving a friend in need would be it.

“Let’s start then.” With that foreboding statement, a dark mist rose rapidly from the ground, enveloping you all just before Yami tossed you aside.

A moment later you falling form hit something, your back crashing against something cold and hard and your wrists once again held in an iron grip. Actually irons this time, it seemed. Because when the mist cleared you saw that the room had changed slightly; you were chained to a table as the boys stood opposite each other at another beside you. The thing that truly made all the heat in your face drain and a scream die in your throat, however, was the large crescent blade hanging above you. 

“Our dear friend will be partaking in this little gamble too, Yugi,” Yami started, walking over to you and placing his cold hand on your shoulder, “The blade of this guillotine is set at the center of its shaft. Every time you win a round, the blade will rise bit by bit, when it finally reaches the top, you win. But every time you lose a round, the blade will drop and eventually...well.” He ran a fingertip over your neck. “I don’t think I need to explain why you don’t want that to happen.” Your stomach felt queasy at the mirth in the voice of your friend. You had to remind yourself that this wasn’t Atem, it was whatever hell was at play in this damned house.

You forced yourself to take your eyes off of the guillotine’s blade and look over at Yugi. Sweat was visible on his forehead and though he still looked determined, his fear was creeping back in as he looked at you.

“It’s okay, Yugi,” you assured him, after swallowing the lump in your throat, “I know you’ll get me out of this, I believe in you.”

Yugi’s lips parted at your words for a moment, before his eyes hardened and he looked at Yami. “Are you going to sit down and play, or not?”

“Such fire I’ve never seen in you before, aibou, I’m going to enjoy this!” your tormentor replied as he took his seat. “I have something special planned for each round of our little game. Have you ever wondered about the details of how I punished all those bullies and thugs who hurt you or our friends?” He snapped his fingers and a stack of money appeared, along with two pocket knives. “The game is simple, we each take turns placing the money on top of one hand and stabbing the bills through with the other. Whoever collects the most money without impaling his hand wins.” He chuckled again, “Poor Ushio still doesn’t have feeling in the hand he stabbed during this little game.”

You saw Yugi swallow hard before taking the initiative and grabbing the stack of money first. Your heart was racing as you watched him gently push the blade of the knife into the papers, the hand beneath shaking visibly. The game was about a mixture of bravery and self-control, but Yugi only managed to collect a few bills on the blade. You watched them take turns doing this, though your eyes kept flickering up to the blade hovering over you, paranoid that something would snap any second and slice through your neck.

Yugi actually gasped when Yami collected the last few bills- and saw that his own stack was considerably smaller.

“Too bad, little brother, you weren’t brave enough to push yourself,” Yami mocked.

You jolted at the sudden movement above you and the clicking of the guillotine’s gears. The blade dropped, causing you to cry out! Thankfully, Yami was a man of his word and it only fell a hand’s span before stopping again. Your breathing was hard again and you forced yourself to look away from the blade and back at the boys if only to calm your nerves by a fraction.

Yami was smiling at you, “Are you sure you still trust him to save you.”

“G-go to hell you fake!” The weak insult came out with minimal struggle, but you hated how smug he looked as he turned back to face Yugi again.

“Hm, for our next game we’ll see if the pressure of saving a loved one is too much for you.” In another wave of smoke, the money and knives were replaced with two lighters. “I’ll change this game around a bit, since the criminal I played against was sent to the hospital with third-degree burns all over his body. We don’t want our fun to end too soon, do we?” Yami leaned forward and took one of the lighters, flicking it on with a graceful motion of his thumb. “These will stay lit even after we take our thumbs off of them. For this game all we have to do is keep the lit lighters balanced on the backs of our hands. The first to drop their lighter loses.”

Yami demonstrated but holding his hand up, palm down, and placing the lighter just below his knuckles. Yugi nodded and grabbed the other lighter, but had to take a few breaths in an obvious effort to calm his shaking body. By the time he placed the fire on his hand his shaking was minimal, but still posed a threat. Sweat still slid down his forehead and your heart went out to Yugi as he continued to try to control his breathing.

“Having trouble, aibou?”

Yugi’s eyes snapped up to Yami’s with an anger you rarely saw in him, “Don’t call me that! You aren’t my brother, he would never be this cruel.”

“Ah, but he was, isn’t that the point?” Yami chuckled, “He always said it was for the good of protecting his sweet little brother and his friends. But the truth is he still hurt all those people, no matter how much he told himself they were vermin who deserved it. He’s a psychopath who needs to hurt others.”

“No he isn’t!” Yugi’s anger was adding to the shake in his body and the lighter teetered precariously. You bit your lip in fear but Yugi just barely managed to tilt his hand and right it again. Once he took in another calming breath, Yugi met Yami’s eyes again. “My brother is a good person and I won’t let you say any different. When I beat you, all three of us are walking out of here.”

Yami’s face fell blank at Yugi’s conviction. For a moment he lost that smug air but it was quickly back in place as he leaned back and crossed his legs, still careful to keep the lighter’s balance.

“You’re certainly stepping up to the challenge, Yugi. But will it be enough to save your friend and your brother? Or are you still that scared little boy who got beaten up every other day?”

Silence fell after the demeaning remark but Yami made sure to keep his eyes on Yugi, trying to unnerve him with their red intensity. After a few minutes that seemed to tick by far too slowly, your own nerves were shot as you desperately tried to ignore the blade hover not even an arm’s length from your vulnerable neck.

Of course, the fact that you tried to keep your focus on the boys did prove useful. Because you saw beneath the table as Yami slowly moved his foot. Was he going to try jump scaring Yugi with a kick under the table? Yugi was too focused on meeting Yami’s gaze and keeping his shaking hand steady, he wouldn’t see it coming. Again you bit your lip, if you called out a warning or yelled at Yami for his backhanded tactic that might jolt Yugi as well. But what might happen if you remained silent?

** ~**~ **

** Choice 3: Warn Yugi, Call the cheat out, or Keep silent? **


	7. Choice 2: Go down the hall

You swallowed hard and turned away from the basement door, like hell you were going to get trapped down there! Besides, you knew the first sound came from the direction three of your friends had gone in, you needed to make sure that wasn’t them.

You stepped down the hall and through a tatami room, stepping onto the engawa style porch. You had been in a few of these traditional houses before and new that the guest bathroom was usually down these outside hallways, and considering Jonouchi’s whole reasoning for charging into this house was to ‘take a leak’ you figured that was a good place to start. The forest closed in tighter on this porch, making your heart feel labored in its erratic beats as you walked. Your paranoia that Broken Hana would come crawling out of those trees any second was skyrocketing. 

Thankfully, you saw the door you were looking for at the end of the engawa. It was slightly ajar and you nudged it open, hoping the scariest thing you were about to see was Jonouchi with his pants down. 

Your heart sank when that hope shattered the same way the mirrors before you must have been. This room was impossible, it was tiled from floor to ceiling, with mirrors placed over sinks all along walls that seemed to stretch on forever. The lights grew dimmer as the room went, but you were sure you saw movement in the shadows. Glass covered the floor, someone obviously having taken their anger- or more likely, fear out on some of the mirrors.

You took a deep breath and stepped inside, knowing your friends must have gotten lost in this room like you had in the forest. Staying cautious of the glass across the floor you made sure to scan every inch of your surroundings so nothing could sneak up on you. In theory, at least. As you were searching, something caught your eye. There was blood smeared on one of the unbroken mirrors. You stepped closer and examined the handprint, it was definitely large enough to be Jonouchi’s. There was something else on the mirror, and you braced yourself against the sink below it to lean in and get a closer look.

Then your heart was crawling up your throat as you heard something behind you! You looked over your shoulder but saw nothing. No shadow’s flickering, no bloody monster crawling towards you.

You sighed in relief, until you heard something else. Something like fingers scraping glass coming from the mirror you turned away from.

You looked back again and there in the reflection- no, inside the mirror was a girl! Her red hair hung in curtains around her face and blood poured from her eyes as she looked at you. You didn’t have time to step away before her arms reached out, passing through the mirror to grab your face! She pulled and smashed your head against the mirror.

A cry of pain barely made it out of your throat as you fell to the ground, a searing pain tearing through your forehead. You couldn’t move, you were left there, staring up at the mirror as the ghostly figure looked down at you with disinterest. 

Something warm and wet slid down your face from your forehead as the woman stepped out of sight and black slowly overtook your vision.


	8. Choice 3: Warn Yugi

You couldn’t just stand by and let this imposter cheat against Yugi. You made sure your voice wasn’t too startling as you called out to Yugi.

“He’s going to try to scare you, Yugi!”

The young man in question looked round at you with wide eyes just as Yami kicked the table under them. Though he didn’t jump Yugi almost lost balance of the lighter, almost. He sighed in relief as he was able to rebalance it, though something else made both of you start.

“Cheating!” Yami jumped up from his seat and his glare was fierce as he looked between you and Yugi. “Calling out instructions and tips is against the rules.”

“Cheating?!” you yelled back, not caring about the vulnerability of your state. “You were the one trying to cheat with your backhanded tactics!”

Yugi nodded, neither man seeming to care about the lighter game anymore considering Yami let his fall into his other hand. “Atem would never use tricks like that, even during his most dangerous games! I won that round, so pull up your next game.”

Yami’s eyes were still alight with anger and he turned back to Yugi and held up the lighter in his hand. “I don’t think so, aibou. Cheaters have to play a penalty game!” 

He clicked the lighter and reignited the flame, before dropping it to the ground. Despite there only being concrete ground there, flames burst to life and spread like a forest fire.

“I win,” Yami growled as Yugi’s looked at the spreading flames in horror. Then Yami looked back at you with that smile on his lips again. “The flames will consume us all and we’ll die here together!”

“No!” Yugi shouted as he ran to you and instantly started pulling at the metal cuff clamped around your wrists. 

The metal bit into his flesh as he desperately tried to free you, smoke pluming towards the ceiling and flames licking at you both from all sides. Even when the metal cut into his hands enough to draw blood Yugi didn’t stop, tears ran down his face as he pulled and tugged and beat at the cuffs.

Yami was laughing now, “It’s hopeless, Yugi. The game ends here.”

The smoke and flames filled the room so full now that Yugi’s face was all you could see as you both started coughing, black filling your lungs. Wood from the ceiling collapsed and Yugi threw his body over yours to shield you from the debris. He stayed like that, sobs wracking his body as he whispered your name and one phrase over and over, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The laughter of that thing pretending to be Atem was the last sound either of you heard as the flames consumed you both.


	9. Choice 3: Call out the cheat

You couldn't stay silent while the think pretending to be Atem cheated. Making sure your voice wasn’t loud enough to startle, you called out to Yami with a growl.

“Hey, cheater, you’re going to have to try harder than that to get one over on Yugi!”

Both men looked over at you, Yugi with wide eyes and Yami with something less severe than annoyance.

“Cheating?” Yugi asked, now narrowing his eyes at his antagonist.

“He was going to kick the table to startle you.”

Yugi looked equal parts annoyed and insulted, “That just proves you’re not my brother, Atem would never use dirty tricks like that!”

Yami only smirked, “I never said we couldn’t attempt to distract our opponent. But, I suppose it was unsportingly of me, so...” Again smoke flooded the space between the boys, “I’ll let you have that win, aibou, I can’t have you calling me a cheater, after all.”

You almost wanted to cry in relief as the guillotine’s blade retracted, rising upward until it clicked back into the place it started. Good, now Yugi just had to win two more games, he could do that easily, you knew he could.

When the smoke receded again the lighters were replaced by two mirrors, two blindfolds, and two pairs of gloves. A set for each of them.

“For our next game, we’ll be putting together a jigsaw puzzle.”

Yami grabbed both mirrors and tossed them effortlessly into the air. They fell back to the table and smashed to bits, though each boy seemed to have the parts for his mirror on his side of the table. 

Yami tossed a blindfold and a pair of gloves to Yugi, “We’ll wear these. The first to put their mirror back together wins.”

Yugi only nodded before putting on the gloves and blindfold. The moment Yami called out “Game start!” Yugi didn’t waste any time in starting on his shattered glass. You knew Yugi had this in the bag, he was amazing at puzzles and had done them literally with his eyes closed before. Then again, Atem was just as skilled with them, and the fact that both men were never more than a piece behind one another at any time showed that. Yami looked much are relaxed than Yugi as he worked, a half-smile on his face and he leisurely tucked the sharp shards together while Yugi’s face was scrunched in concentration and his throat constricted with the occasional gulp.

“How are you doing, Yugi?” Yami asked with interest and an undertone of mock concern. “I think I’m over half-finished already.”

Yugi surprised you by smiling, “Only that much? Are you afraid to see your own reflection in the mirror when you’re done?”

The confident tone seemed to irritate the imposter, his brows knitted together and his slight smirk fell. “Why would I be afraid of that?”

“Because you’ll see what a fake you are, or worse, you’ll see the real Atem staring back at you. If my brother is anywhere in there, I know he’ll fight back, he won’t let you win.”

Yami regained some of his superior air with a curve of his lips. “Hm, he seems to have done a poor job of it so far. How many times did I almost dismember you down here, aibou?”

Yugi didn’t answer at first, but he still seemed sure of himself as he said in a soft tone, “I’ll always believe in my brother.”

Yami paused in his puzzle solving at the words, gloved hands hovering over the pieces and his lips parted in what you could assume was shock. Were...were his hands shaking? After a moment, Yami seemed to regain himself, jaw clamping shut with a slight growl as he grabbed his next piece, but it was too late.

“Done!” Yugi practically cheered as he jumped up from his seat and ripped the blindfold off with a triumphant grin.

Yami slammed his fists on the table, “No!” He rose to his feet as well and his eyes were blazing with fury as tore the cloth from around his eyes. “I won’t let you win again, Yugi. I won’t!”

Yugi was the one smirking now. “You hesitated, he held you back didn’t he? My brother is in there fighting you!”

“No!” Again Yami pounded his fist onto the table, the glass of his mirror shattering even more and sending little shards flying, “I’m all that’s left of him! Me! All his fear and hate and anger twisted together like-”

Yami froze, his eyes locked on the mirror lying broken on the table. You wished you could see what he saw, but your prone and bound position only let you see as his eyes went wide and his fists clenched even tighter.

“Tell me your next game so we can beat you!” Yugi pressed, his confidence making his tone sound all the more commanding.

Yami let out a noise somewhere between a growl and a roar as he shook his head. “No! I’ll win- I’ll win one way or another!”

Your heart sank and you cried out as Yami grabbed a large piece of the broken mirror and lunged at Yugi! The boy gasped and tried to dodge but both of them went tumbling to the ground. The table that had been between them toppled as well and shards of the mirrors went everywhere.

Though you knew it was useless you desperately tried to free yourself from your restraints; needing to do  _ something _ as the men scuffled, Yugi barely holding back Yami as the glass’s sharp point hovered above his chest. The cuffs bit into the skin of your wrists as Yugi shouted, pleading for Atem to fight the evil thing before them.

“It’s no use, Yugi, the game is over!”

Yami raised his hands up high, shard held so tightly between his hands that it cut through the gloves and into the skin below. A mad grin spread across his face as blood dripped down his wrist and palms. He was going to strike, going to plunge the shard into Yugi’s heart- 

But he froze. Again, Yami froze. More pieces of the mirror had fallen to the ground in the fight and he caught his reflection in them. His smile faded as he stared and drops of blood fell onto his face as he held the weapon, poised for attack above his head.

“This...this isn’t me...”

Yugi was on the verge of tears now and he nodded up at his brother and his attacker. “No, it isn’t, fight it, Atem! We know this isn’t you! What ever took control of you, fight it!”

The man in question continued to stare at his reflection and you swore you saw the red of his eyes shift to purple, two colors swimming together like dye in water.

“I- I won’t…” Atem mumbled, whispering yours and Yugi’s name slowly, like waking from a dream. “I won’t!”

The moment you realized what he was going to do your shouts mixed with Yugi’s, screams of ‘no’ ringing off the walls as Atem plunged the glass into his own stomach.

As if it was exploding from a closed chamber, the black smoke burst forth and engulfed the entire room in a second. Something shifted beneath you, the cuffs finally relented and the table you were strapped to vanished. Your back hit the ground hard but it was a small price to pay to finally be free. Desperate, you crawled and scrambled within the smoke, trying to get to the boys through the haze.

Almost as quickly as it had come, the smoke dissolved. The room was back to normal, no guillotine, no table with twisted game pieces on them, just you, Yugi...and Atem. Yugi cradled his brother in his lap and for a moment you feared the worst. Then, you breathed a sigh of relief when a moment’s long look over showed no sign of injury. Atem’s skin was its usual darker tone, his hair wild but not completely crazed. Your Atem was back.

Slowly, his eyes blinked open and he looked up at you and Yugi with a tired gaze. “Is it...over?”

Yugi let out something like a cheer and gave him the best hug he could manage in the awkward pose. Atem returned the gesture, thanking Yugi in a quiet tone. Thanking him for believing in him.

“It’s not over yet, but at least we have you back now!” Yugi said as the brothers rose to their feet. “We still have to find Jonouchi, Anzu, and Mai.”

Atem nodded, wasting no time in turning towards the door. “If they’re in any situation like ours, we need to find them, fast.”

And just like that, you and the boys were running back through the basement. After twisting through the maze of furniture and rubbish you were bounding up the stairs and landed back onto the main floor.

“Which way do we go now?” Yugi asked, turning to you.

“Before I went into the basement I heard something down the hall, the same direction Jonouchi and the girls went when we first got here.”

“Then what are we waiting for,” Atem only half asked as he took a step in that direction.

However, the moment he did, there came a sound so normal, so quaint, that it almost startled you as much as having your best friend throw an ax at your head. There was a phone ringing. There, sitting on a table beside the staircase, was a landline, chiming as if politely asking to be picked up.

“Should we answer?” Yugi asked, his voice quaking a bit.

The three of you shared a long look, all asking each other the same thing: Keep going, or answer the phone?

**~**~**

**Choice 4: Continue down the hall, or Answer the phone?**


	10. Choice 3: Keep Silent

The risk of startling Yugi by calling out to him was too high, you just hoped that he could keep the lighter balanced when Yami kicked the table. Your teeth were still worrying your lip as watched Yami’s knee jerk up and bang on the wood. You bit down hard enough to draw blood when you saw Yugi’s lighter fall.

Yami made a tisk tisk sound, “You lose again, Yugi. Are you still so sure of yourself?”

“That- that was a dirty move and you know it!” Yugi challenged, his breathing heavy.

“Perhaps, but I never said you couldn’t try distracting your opponent. Now, on to the next game, but first…”

You gasped at the sound of gears clicking again and for the second time the blade released, swooping down and making you want to scream- it wasn’t going to stop!

You closed your eyes when the stoppers clicked back in place. You tried to keep your breaths even as you cracked your eyes back open and looked up. Oh god, it was so close you could feel the cold metal of the blade’s paper-thin edge. Just a little more and it was over.

NO! You had to believe in Yugi, believe that he would get you out of this. Your fear must have blocked out your other senses for a moment because you realized that Yugi was calling out your name. You looked over and saw him, eyes so wide and face so pale you could practically feel his fear like it was your own.

“I- I’m okay, Yugi,” you assured, “just focus on getting us out of here.” 

You tried to give him a reassuring smile, but he didn’t return it. You’d even go as far as to say he looked pained as he sat back down and turned to face Yami again.

“For our next, and dare I day last, game, we’ll be putting together a puzzle,” Yami explained. 

The smoke returned, bringing with it two mirrors, two blindfolds, and two pairs of gloves. Yami grabbed both mirrors and tossed them effortlessly into the air. They fell back to the table and smashed to bits, the sound making you and jump despite yourself. 

Yami threw the blindfold and a pair of gloves at Yugi, “We’ll wear these. The first to put their mirror back together wins.”

Yugi only nodded before putting on the gloves and blindfold. The moment Yami called out “Game start!” Yugi didn’t waste any time in starting on his shattered glass. Yugi could do this, you told yourself, he was amazing at puzzles! Now, if only he could stop his hands from shaking so much. Guilt washed over you, maybe he was losing his confidence because you couldn’t help but scream every time that blade inched closer to you. You didn’t want to be the reason Yugi didn’t believe in himself, this whole situation was just too fucked up!

“How are you doing, little brother?” Yami asked, smugness evident even under the blindfold. “You’re not nervous, are you? Afraid of cutting yourself on the glass, or are you afraid of not being good enough to save the ones you love?”

“Shut up!” you snarled, “Yugi will beat you no matter what taunts you throw at him!”

“We’ll see…” was all Yami said as he continued placing the glass back together.

Your heart was pounding in your ears as you watched both of them work. Yugi was making good headway, but his opponent was never a full step behind. Then, the frantic beats in your ears stopped, as your heart sank when you saw the wrong boy pick up his last piece and set it in its place.

“Game over, Yugi!”

The boy in question ripped off his mask with a gasp, “No! NO!”

Yami cackled as Yugi turned towards you and again, your heart stopped as the sound of gears clicked above you. Yugi screamed your name and tired to run to you as you looked up, but you didn’t even have time to register the blade before it came all the way down.


	11. Choice 4: Go down the hall

“We should keep going,” your voice was firm as you gave your opinion, “I already don’t like how much time has passed since we’ve seen the others, we need to get to them.”

“Agreed,” Atem nodded, again already taking steps down the hallway, “besides, we don’t know if the phone is a trap or not.” He threw a suspicious glance at said object as you and Yugi fell in step behind him. Funny how a demonic house could make one wary of a simple telephone.

You three turned into the large tatami room and crossed it, stepping out onto the engawa. After a quick glance, you determined that the sound you heard before going into the basement came from the right end of the walkway and pointed out as much to the boys.

Atem, as protective as ever, gently nudged you and Yugi to walk on either side and just behind him, “Stay close, there’s no telling what we’re about to walk into.”

The fact that the sun was still up held little comfort as you three ventured down the wooden planks of the engawa towards a door at the very end. The forest on the other side closed in a little too close for comfort, especially given your run-in with Broken Hana. Yugi must have sensed your distress, because you felt him reach out, take your hand, and give it a gentle squeeze, a silent reminder that you weren’t alone now.

It took you longer than you would have thought to reach the door, as if the hallway had stretched itself. You vaguely remembered Jonouchi running into the house because he needed to ‘take a leak’ and given that guest bathrooms were often at the end of these outdoor hallways, it made sense that you might find him here. The thing that unsettled you, was the fact that the door was ajar, and given that nothing in this house was likely normal, you were sure you weren’t about to see an actual bathroom.

Atem kicked the door the rest of the way open and when you all stepped inside, your fears were confirmed. This room was just as unnatural as the forest and that deathtrap basement. It was tiled from floor to ceiling, with mirrors placed over sinks all along walls that seemed to stretch on forever. The lights grew dimmer as the room went, and something seemed to move in the shadows. Glass covered the floor, someone obviously having taken their anger- or more likely, fear out on some of the mirrors.

Staying cautious of the glass, the three of you advanced into the room. You made sure to scan every inch of your surroundings so nothing could sneak up on you this time. In theory, at least. As you were searching, however, something caught your eye. There was blood smeared on one of the unbroken mirrors. You stepped closer and examined the handprint, it was definitely large enough to be Jonouchi’s. There was something else on the mirror, and you braced yourself against the sink below it to lean in and get a closer look.

Then your heart was crawling up your throat as you heard something behind you! You looked over your shoulder, but saw nothing. No shadow’s flickering, no bloody monster crawling towards you, or possessed friend trying to behead you. Just Yugi and Atem scanning the walls with their eyes just as you were.

You sighed in relief, until you heard something else. You were about to jerk your head back towards the mirror, but Atem shouted your name and before you could turn, arms wrapped around your body and pulled you to the ground. With an ‘oof’ you and Atem made contact with the tile floor and your eyes darted up to see- much to the distress of your pounding heart, something with long hair move in the mirror. Not just in the reflection, but  _ inside _ the mirror. You didn’t get a decent look, it was gone a second after you looked up.

“Are you alright?” Atem asked, his arms still around your waist as he peered down at you with concern.

“Y-yeah. Thanks for the save,” you looked back up at the mirror, “what  _ was _ that?”

Atem finally relinquished his hold on you and sat up, holding his hand out to help you do the same. “I’m not sure, it looked like a woman with a bloody face.”

You looked over your shoulder to see Yugi staring at the mirror as well, his brows drawn together in thought. “Hey...You remember me saying how I think this house plays on our worst fears?” Yugi’s eyes flickered to the two of you as he asked, and when you nodded he added, “well, Jonouchi always has been pretty scared of urban legends…”

You almost had to cover your mouth in horror. He was right. You remember everyone sitting around a bonfire last summer, deciding to bring up the goriest and creepiest urban legends you could. Kuchisake-onna, Teke Teke, Bloody Mary, and several others had lead Jonouchi to actually get up out of his seat and declare that he was going back inside if everyone didn’t choose a different topic. For all his smart-mouthed, thug-ish bravado, the one thing that never failed to spook your blonde friend, was the supernatural. Maybe it was because ghosts and vengeful spirits weren’t a threat he could simply punch out, or maybe the uncertainty freaked him out. Regardless, Jonouchi has always hated thinking about ghostly legends that might possibly be true.

“Well, at least we have an idea of what we might find down there,” Atem nodded to the depths of the room that darkened as it went. “Keep an eye out for slit mouthed women and scythe-wielding specters.”

“And vengeful girls inside mirrors,” you muttered, casting a look back at the mirror behind you before you and the boys started moving again.

Like in the hallway, Atem made sure he would take the brunt of any attack that might jump out in front of you, by having you and Yugi stay just behind him as you walked. The tile floor echoed the trio of footsteps, sending clicking noises to sound all the way in the darkest depths of the room. It was hard to distinguish the echoes of your own footsteps from sounds to be concerned over, you feared how you could possibly stay alert as you walked farther into the darkness.

The surroundings changed a bit, from shattered mirrors and porcelain sinks to broken tiles and suspiciously black puddles on the floor. The smell of mildew and decay permeated the air, as if the walls themselves were something dying or rotting away. Odd piles of debris lined the walls here or there, like the remnants of an abandoned house’s belongings being pushed to the side.

A cold sensation dripped down your back when you heard something other than the eerie click of footsteps. Whispers. Voices seemed to crawl across your skin, indistinct in their words but venomous in tone as they drifted in from the darkness.

“J-onouchi!” 

Yugi’s almost-shout made you jump and you forced your eyes away from the shadowy corners to look straight ahead again. You saw him too, that familiar mop of blonde hair and green jacket flashing in the darkness beyond. His movements seemed frantic, like he was turning this way and that. He didn’t look round at Yugi’s call, and the next thing you knew the three of you were booking it towards him together, not caring for the whispers as the grew louder and seemed to close in like an oppressing fog.

You hadn’t even realized you had grabbed hold of Atem’s arm as you ran, an attempt not to lose him or Yugi in the sprint. Jonouchi was coming more into view now and you saw a pipe in his hands as he continued to look around him in darting motions.

Atem opened his mouth to call out to him, to tell him he wasn’t alone now or to-

WHAM

The force hit you so suddenly you felt like your heart was in your throat again as you fell to the ground. Yugi and Atem fell too, the three of you making quite the heap as you tried to get your bearings back. You managed to rise first and after a frantic toss and turn of your head, you saw that there was no specter or monster that had pushed you down. As the boys scrambled to their feet as well, you reached out to the stretch of air that had sent you flying back. Your fingers made contact with something icy, though you still saw Jonouchi’s frantic movements on the other side.

“It’s a mirror,” Atem observed, banging his fist against the seemingly invisible blockage. 

“Look!” Yugi’s attention was still fixed on Jonouchi and you focused back on him in an instant.

You gasped when you saw what Yugi did, things were flashing in the darkness all around Jonouchi. Human figures warped and disfigured by whatever horrible fate their story told of. 

“Stay away!” Jonouchi shouted at them, trying to keep all of his sides secure as he turned and wheeled about with his weapon at the ready.

Yugi slammed his fists against the glass separating the three of you from him, calling out with desperation. “Jonouchi! We’re here, we’ll help you get out of there just come towards us!”

“It’s no use, Yugi,” Atem said, looking the barrier over. “He can’t hear us, he’s trapped there. We have to break through the glass somehow.”

As one of the whispers grew louder and called out to your panicking friend you jumped into action, not caring for the shadows that filled the room all around you. There was debris littering the edge of the walls, black puddles splashed your feet as you searched the mildewed wreckage for something useful, the boys quickly joining your efforts. You weren’t distracted enough not to hear when one of the specters continued to call out to Jonouchi.

“Your fault...You failed me…”

You looked over your shoulder long enough to see that among the gory corpses closing in on him, there was a young girl with long reddish brown hair standing nearest. Her eyes were bloody holes, scarlet dripping down across her face in thick rivulets. She looked oddly familiar, not like the typical depictions of bloody mary you had seen. As she stepped closer to Jonouchi and repeated her words she looked almost like-

“Oh god,” you whispered, “Shizuka.”

The specter looked like a twisted version of Jonouchi’s sister. And the eyes…

“This is your fault, big brother,” the spirit spat, her fingers reaching up to her bloody eyes. “You couldn’t save me- why didn’t you save me!?”

Jonouchi had frozen in the mists of her accusations. His eyes were wide, his mouth almost forming his sister's name in horror as he watched her glide closer to him inch by inch. Yugi mumbled something beside you as Jonouchi dropped his pipe, still stunned into stillness.

“Here!” Atem pulled something from the wreckage and drew your attention back to the matter at hand. 

He had found a thick metal railing, something that might have once been part of a shelf or shower but it looked hefty enough. Atem ran back to the glassy barrier with it in hand, just as Jonouchi fell to his knees, looking up at the imitation of his sister. You were sure you saw tears welling up in his eyes as he whispered something. 

Desperate to get to your friend, you and Yugi wasted no time in grabbing the middle and end of the rod while Atem held firmly to the top. It wasn’t the most ideal battering ram, but it would have to work.

The woman reached out to Jonouchi as the three of you charged, ramming the end of the rod as hard as you could into the glass. It cracked loudly, lines like webs appearing in the mirror. The noise finally seemed to draw the attention of those on the other side and the bloody Shizuka flinched, hissing as she looked around at you and the twins.

“It’s working,” Yugi called out as you three backed up and charged again.

More cracks appeared and blood poured from them as Jonouchi looked towards you as well. Third charge was the charm as you plowed into the mirror and with a thunderous crash, it shattered. 

However, something made you stumble. The earth fell away from your feet and so did the cold solid metal of the rod in your fingers as you were sent falling through pitch black. It was only a moment before your face and side made contact with the floor again and a stabbing pain tore through your leg.

The whispers fell away, retreating farther into the darkness as you groaned in pain and tried to sit upright again. Your skin became painfully aware of the fact that the shards of mirror were scattered around you. Keeping mindful of that, you reached out blindly, trying to find Atem or Yugi in the oppressive darkness. You felt nothing however. You couldn’t even sense movement besides your own. 

The ambient light from the start of the room had been enough to light your way before, but now it was like you were in a black void. You pulled the lighter from your pocket, thankful you had grabbed it from the shed, and flicked it to life. The flame illuminated your surroundings better than you thought it would and you turned to find that you were indeed alone again. The boys nor the specters were anywhere to be seen.

When you moved to stand that pain stabbed through your leg again and you looked down to find that a shard had slit your thigh open. The cut was nasty, but nothing you couldn’t handle, not in the danger you and your friends were in, anyway. Ignoring the pain you rose to your feet and started walking, the cut and its smaller siblings covering your arms and legs making your pace slow and limping.

Taking a chance you called out to your friends as you wandered through the dark. “Atem?” No answer. “Yugi?” Only a deafening silence. “Jonouchi?! Damn it one of you has to be here, you couldn’t have gone far.”

That was a dumb statement, it’s not as if anything in this house made any sense or followed any rules of logic. 

The darkness and eerie silence was starting to get to you. The fact that you couldn't see more than an inch or two in front of you made you have terrible visions of running right into the chest of a woman with her mouth cut from ear to ear, or the top half of a corpse silently crawling in the darkness behind you.

You bit back a scream when you heard someone call out your name and you wheeled around to find Yugi throwing his arms around you. The hug only lasted a second as he said “I thought I’d lost you again,” in a low tone before pulling back.

“Atem isn’t with you?” he asked and you could only shake your head.

Without another word you two stayed close and started walking again, the flame of your lighter and its tiny cocoon of light being your only security. Then another sound called out from the darkness, again the sound of glass breaking and what sounded like a very irritated voice.

“There, it came from there,” Yugi whispered, pointing into the darkness barely to your left.

You swallowed hard and started in that direction, again daring to call out the names of your two remaining friends. 

To your relief, a familiar voice answered back. Atem called your name as footsteps echoed off the walls you couldn’t see. The flame lit up his figure as he came into view, and the tension in his shoulders visibly relaxed when he saw you and Yugi together.

“Now we only have to find Jonouchi again,” he muttered to himself, but his eyes narrowed as they darted towards your leg. “You’re hurt.” 

Atem bent down to examine the cut as you tried to assure him you were fine, but he didn’t seem to hear your lame assurance. He took off his thin spring jacket and used a cut in the fabric (likely from the shattered mirror as well) to tear a good chunk of it apart. He took the scrap and tied it around your thigh, making you flinch a bit as he made sure it was tight enough to stop the bleeding. 

He looked up at you with apologetic eyes at your discomfort. “We can’t have you passing out from blood loss, after all we still have half of our party to find,” his tone was almost teasing, an attempt to lighten the mood as he rose to his feet and tried to give you a reassuring look.

“Let’s keep going,” Yugi said, still peering into the darkness, as if might find Jonouchi in the shadows if he just stared hard enough. 

The venture through the dark felt easier to bear now that you had the boys with you again. Though there came a fleeting thought that they had reunited with you a little too easily. Nothing seemed easy in this hell house.

You opened your mouth, about to ask how you were actually going to find Jonouchi, but you halted when again, whispers slowly came into earshot. 

“I think we should follow the voices,” you said instead, and both boys gave you a look before nodding their heads in agreement.

Though the indistinct whispers made it hard to ignore the shiver crawling up your spine, you managed to press onward. They did not get any easier to make out, but they did get just a bit louder and they were soon joined by something else. Weak, miserable sobbing.

Atem whispered Jonouchi’s name under his breath as the three of you picked up your pace without a word. The increase in speed made your flame flicker out but that was fine, you shoved the lighter back into your pocket with your keys as you tracked the terrible sounds.

Perhaps your eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to see a bit, or perhaps there was some ambient light leaking in from some unknown source. Either way, finally, Jonouchi’s form came into view. He was kneeling, his head hung low as if he had no more fight left in him. You had never thought it possible to see him in such a defeated state.

“Jonouchi!” Yugi called out, being the first to reach him and kneel beside your friend.

He didn’t seem to take notice to your arrival, his head remained facing the ground as he muttered to himself the same sentiment over and over again. “My fault. I let my baby sister down. My fault. I can’t save her. I can’t do anything right.”

“I think he’s in shock,” Atem offered, trying to peer at his face as he kneeled beside him.

“Shock or not we have to get him out of here, we’ll drag him if we have to,” you said, fighting the guilt of having to be so harsh with him.

Atem nodded, “Agreed, I’ll take this arm if you-”

“Uh, guys!” 

Yugi’s call snapped your attention back to your surroundings and your vision was met with red. You stumbled back as more red flashed before you when you turned round and it took you a moment to realize what you were seeing. The Bloody Mary who had taken the form of Shizuka was standing at all sides. The same visage repeated over and over all around, like mirrors reflecting the same image. Before you could even think to think up a plan of action, her pale corpse-like arms reached out, her reflections doing the same all around you. Very solid hands grabbed you and pulled you in, you fought back but it was no use, they dragged you in until your back met with the cold touch of glass.

They didn’t stop there, however, they kept pulling. The mirror didn’t shatter, no, it warped and rippled around your body. The mirror was sucking you in! A glance back at the scene before showed that the same was happening to Yugi and Atem. Hands clasped onto them tight and slowly pulled them inside the mirror. They were fighting too but it didn’t do them any more good than it did you.

A moment later and your body started to feel constricted, no, more than that. Crushed. A force was pressing in at all sides making it harder and harder to breath. You heard Yugi struggling with the same as he tried to speak, pleading with the man still kneeling on the floor.

“J-jonouchi, do-don’t listen! Don’t listen t-to her! You didn’t fail anyone! You’re working hard each and e-every day to save your sis-sister’s sight. She believes in you! J-just like we all do!”

Desperate to have him hear Yugi, you cried out as well, straining against the suffocating force. “He’s right! You’ve al-always taken c-care of Shizuka! She knows you’ll come through in the end, you-you always do, Jonouchi.”

Your vision was blurring and you were sure you were in the same state as the twins, face and limbs the only thing not sucked into the mirror yet, you couldn’t see Jonouchi anymore, but you heard Atem as he added his own support to hopeful pleas.

“Believe in yourself as much as we believe in you!”

Something froze at the words. Not just something, the force that was pulling you in froze. The whole room seemed to still as something flashed in your blurred vision. A form tall and strong held his arms in a batter’s striking pose.

“Let go of my friends, you bitch!”

The figure moved, swung his arms with a war cry. A breathless wait as the world crashed and shattered around you. An agonized wail as your body was relinquished from the oppressive force. Your vision still came in blurs as your body fell to a cold hard ground. Painful intakes of breath wracked your body as you took in air, finally able to breathe again.

Something was on your back, a comforting pressure as light and sound came back to you like water falling from your senses. A blink, then two and the sight of a small, plain, normal bathroom came into view. The sound of Jonouchi’s reassuring voice filled your ears as did the coughing and sputtering of Yugi and Atem.

“Hey take it easy guys!” Jonouchi scolded, “You’ll make yourselves sick if you keep gasping like that.”

Yugi croaked out his name as he reached up and threw his arms around his friend. “You’re okay!”

“Yeah, thanks to your pep talk. Sorry I almost let you down back there.” Jonouchi muttered the last part, turning his face away in shame as Yugi pulled back.

You only saw it for a moment, but you took in the red eyes and tear tracks marking his face.

“Don’t be a dummy,” you said, reaching out and placing your hand on his back, “You saved our lives back there!”

He looked at you for a moment, almost managing a smile before he turned to the three of you at large, “What the hell were those things? What the hell happened?”

“If Yugi’s theory is correct, and I think it very well is, it was your worst fears come to life,” Atem answered.

“But how?”

Yugi shrugged, “We think it’s this house, but we aren’t sure how.”

Jonouchi cursed under his breath, staring at the ground for just a moment before his eyes darted up and scanned the small area you four were crammed into. “Wait, where are Mai and Anzu?”

“We still have to find them,” you answered as you stood up, “and we better get moving now, there’s no telling what trouble the two of them are in.”

Without a word the three boys agreed and got to their feet as well.

“Do you have any idea where the girls might have gotten to?” Yugi asked, looking up at Jonouchi as you all filed back out onto the engawa, “They were following you after all.”

The blond shook his head, “Nah, I booked it straight for the bathroom and didn’t hear em behind me at all. The moment I tried to leave the room it...changed, and all that shit with the ghosts went down.”

“It was the same with us,” Atem said, looking back at you as the four of you walked, “You simply disappeared from our sights one moment, as if you were never there. Then we were led into the basement.”

“You guys were separated too?” Jou asked, “How long was I stuck in there?”

Yugi’s brows creased in thought and his eyes flickered between all of you as he said, “You know, now that I think about it, I have no idea how much time had passed. It seems like forever, and only a few minutes at the same time.”

“Perhaps this place can warp time as well as reality,” Atem added, stopping his stride almost suddenly.

Past the tatami room that led back inside, at the other end of the engawa, there was another narrower staircase. Apparently thinking it prudent to check, Atem peered up the steps, trying to look at the landing above. You, Yugi, and Jou did the same and your mouth fell open when you saw the flash of white clothes and long hair dart down the hallway at the top of the stairs.

“That must be Mai or Anzu!” 

The moment the claim left Jonouchi’s mouth he was bounding up the stairs. You called after him but he ignored you, making you and the twins run after him. He was at the top of the stairs in an instant and he looked down the hallway, only waiting for a moment to let you catch up before he bolted again. Something wasn’t right, you shouldn't be charging in like this- but, he must have seen something you didn’t, and that’s why he was charging down the hallway, right?

**~**~**

**Choice 5: Chase after Jou, or Pull Jou back?**


	12. Choice 4: Answer the phone

“I- I think we should pick it up,” you said, how unsure you felt about the idea peaking through in your tone. “Not that I think this hell house would actually have anything normal happen in it, but if there’s a chance someone on the other end might be able to help us, I think we should take it.”

With that, you jogged up to the phone, though Atem hissed your name like a warning in your wake. The phone was still ringing when you ripped it off its base and held the receiver to your ear.

“Hello?”

An eerie static-filled your ears as you listened. You were about to call out to whoever was on the other end, ask for help, but a low, wispy voice interrupted you.

“Attic...answers...attic.”

“A-attic? Who is this, what do you-”

Your plea for answers came to a screeching halt when you felt something tickle your ear. Jerking the receiver back you shouted in surprise and dropped it when you saw a centipede- no, a dozen centipedes wriggling out from the speaker’s holes. You still heard that voice whispering the word ‘Attic’ over and over as you realized that the cord for the phone wasn’t even plugged into the wall.

When a hand touched the small of your back you jolted despite yourself, but it was only Atem, looking down at the phone with a muter version of disgust on his face as more bugs slithered and crawled out of the receiver.

“Come, let’s go,” he said and tried to turn back towards the hall.

However, the two of you didn’t even manage a step before the creak of floorboards behind you caused the both of you to turn back on your heels. You heard Yugi scream something just as your eyes landed on a man- a tall, rat-faced man with grime and blood covering his face as well as a wide grin. You felt Atem grip your arm and pull you back just as something flashed in the man’s hand.

The stranger lashed out, his hand slashing and his mad voice calling out, “She belongs to me!”

Suddenly you couldn’t breathe, you were choking as an iron tang rose in your throat. Atem yelled something else as he again tried to pull you back. If only on instinct, your hands reached up to your throat and touched something warm and wet cascading down your front. The man cackled as he slashed again and you saw the knife this time- and heard Atem’s scream as red sprayed the air.

You were faintly aware of Yugi calling out to you both as you fell to the ground. Black rapidly closed in on your vision, but you saw the man turn his crazed sights on Yugi, before the darkness completely enveloped you.


	13. Choice 5: Chase after Jonouchi

The patter of his bare feet thudded against the carpet too fast. You hissed his name under your breath as you gave chase down the hallway. There was a closed door to your right and another turn in the hallway but nothing amiss seemed to be in sight.

“Jonouchi wait!” Yugi called out from behind you.

“We don’t know what’s up here!” Atem added.

There was a creak in the floorboards, something thudding down the adjacent hallway! You were right behind your blonde friend and you called out to him again but he didn’t hear. Just as your voice rang off the walls a tall figure stepped out from the corner. He let out a mad laugh as he swung something and with a loud _crack_ Jonouchi was sent flying back. His body collided with yours and the two of you fell to the ground.

Atem called out your name as you and Jonouchi looked up. A bloodstained man wearing a sick grin on his long dirtied face stared down at your prone forms before his beady eyes darted up to Yugi and Atem.

“Not a step closer!” he screeched, his voice dragging out from his throat like stone scraping stone. He brandished the thing in his hands, a thick iron fire poker, and hovered it threateningly close to Jou’s face. “I don’t think you want me to turn your friends into mush right in front of you,” he cackled at Yugi and Atem, but you dared not look back at them from your current position.

“Let them go!” Yugi pleaded, though he likely knew it would do little good, “We’re done playing these sick games, whatever you are we won’t let you hurt our friends!”

The man before you cackled again and ended with a wide grin, displaying piss-yellow teeth as his eyes widened in mad pleasure. “Games? You’ve got me all wrong, I don’t want to play any games. I just want all of you gone so I can have my sweet little darling all to myself!” He raised the poker swiftly above his head, staring you and Jonouchi down still with that wide grin, “Nothing will stand in the way of our love!”

You felt a hand from behind grab hold of your arm but it was too late. The madman brought his weapon down on you and Jonouchi in a shower of blood and screams.


	14. Choice 5: Pull Jonouchi back

You cursed under your breath with venom, what was he thinking running off like that?! The carpet did little to muffle your thundering feet as you pushed yourself to catch up with him in a few quick steps. You managed it and grabbed hold of the collar to his green jacket, not wasting a moment before pulling him back.

“Hey!” he cried with indignance.

“Don’t rush in like that! I doubt that thing we saw was Mai or Anzu.”

The boys caught up a moment after you did and Yugi was quick to interject, “You got that right. A figure just like that is what led me and Atem into the basement, I think it’s doing its best to lead us into trap after trap!”

After a moment of looking back at you three, his face alight with frustration, Jonouchi closed his eyes, and let out a curse before nodded his head. “Sorry, wasn’t thinking. I’m just so- damn it!”

Atem put his hand on the Jonouchi’s shoulder, “It’s alright, we’re all worried and desperate to find them. But we have to stay vigilant, or else none of us are getting out of here.”

The creak of floorboards followed Atem’s words and all of you seemed to cast your eyes around the hallway, attention drawn back to the fact that you were all out in the open in a more than haunted house. Again there was a creak of wood and your eyes shot down the hallway. There was a door to your right and a turn in the hallway on the left.

“I think it came from down that hall,” Yugi whispered as low a possible, eyes fixed forward.

Jonouchi’s posture shifted, lowering slightly as if into a defensive pose. He said in a tone as low as Yugi’s, “Then let’s draw the sucker out.”

With that, the man charged and you were sure all three of you yelled after him. Jonouchi was impulsive, but he was no fool. The moment he came within the turn in the hallway, he darted away from the open as far as possible. Just in time, because the moment he closed in a figure unlike the one you had seen before stepped out and swung something. It missed Jou completely and now he was on the other side of the attacker. Jonouchi charged again and rammed his elbow hard into the back of the attacker’s neck.

The newcomer stumbled, still swinging his weapon wildly. But the blow only seemed to do that, and too quickly he was standing up straight again and laughing hysterically. The man had a dirty face, long and rat-like with small wild eyes to match. The thing that really sent your skin crawling, however, was the fact that his face and clothes were covered in blood, red and fresh. The killer brandished his weapon, a think iron fire poker, as his eyes traveled back and forth between you three and Jonouchi on his other side.

“Clever little vermin, doesn’t matter though,” the man said in a voice crunching gravel, “I’ll kill you all quick enough!”

He charged faster than you anticipated, iron flashing in the sunlight from the window as he swung at Yugi. Your friend wasn’t quick enough and the tip of the poker managed to graze his cheek. In a flash the rest of you were closing in on the creep, Jonouchi giving something akin to a war cry at seeing his friend hurt. The man was ready though and swung his weapon in wild flashes.

“You won’t save her! She’s mine, you hear me!? Mine Mine **Mine**!” Again and again he swung managing to catch Atem hard in the upper arm and keeping Jonouchi at bay.

Yugi was in the fray now too, ignoring the blood dripping down his cheek as he called out to the psycho, “She doesn’t belong to you, creep!”

That got the man’s attention just as Yugi planned, and the moment he charged at Yugi enraged, Yugi grabbed the handle of the door beside him and swung it open. The plank met the man’s charge with a thunderous crack and the killer was caught in the splintering wood of the door in an instant.

“Go!” Yugi yelled to the rest of you, already making for the hallway the madman had come from.

Everyone obliged as the attacker screamed and raged to get free and give chase. This area of the house was more open and there were several doors on either side. The girls could be behind any of them if they weren’t still trapped on the first floor.

“We have to check all the rooms,” you said, fighting the urge to do nothing but run.

Atem nodded just as a crashing sound behind you was followed by thundering footsteps. “We need to put something between us and him anyway.”

The young man threw the first door you came to open and all of you piled inside just as a shadow rounded the corner. Atem slammed the door shut and all of you seemed to brace yourselves against the wood and held your breaths as you listened to the hallway.

The footsteps never came. Was he simply waiting at the end of the hall, or had he vanished to torment you later? You and the others let a few long moments pass before any of you felt safe enough to even turn away from the door. Jonouchi was the first one who did and you thought you heard him gulp before he called back to the rest of you.

“Guys, you’re gonna wanna see this.”

You still held your palms firm against the door as you looked over your shoulder, but you felt your arms go slack as your eyes were not met with a bedroom or study. Before you was a dark field, grass and dirt and...headstones illuminated by the full moon overhead. You were in a cemetery.

When something bit into your palms you looked back to find the door gone. In its place was a large oak tree with more open dark night and cemetery grounds surrounding it.

“Alright, who’s nightmare are we in this time?” you asked as everyone pulled away from the tree.

“I want to know who nightmared-up that fire poker wielding maniac,” Jonouchi countered.

“Anzu.” All of you looked round at Atem who was scanning the headstones all around. “Isn’t it obvious? After that hell she went through with her stalker this year, it makes sense this place would bring that nightmare back to life.”

Under his breath, Yugi repeated the madman’s words, “She’s mine.”

“So that means we’re here to save Mai,” you added, scanning the area with your own eyes. “And after we pull her out of here, we’ll have to book it to protect Anzu from that psycho.”

“So, which direction do we go?” Yugi asked.

Another moment of searching, then, “There!”

Atem was pointing into the distance, in the direction where the door used to be. It was faint, but on the horizon of night, you saw what looked like a gathering of people. A funeral maybe?

All of you started moving in that direction and thankfully Jonouchi didn’t go running off again. Fog rolled along the grass at your feet, but you could still see enough not to be too paranoid about something crawling across your toes or slithering up your ankles. No, what really made you paranoid, was how shadows seem to dart between headstones and something dark pulled away just as you caught sight of it in the corner of your eye.

“Mai never told me she was scared of graveyards,” Jonouchi muttered, obviously trying to keep himself distracted from the odd shadows as well.

“I think it’s more than that,” Yugi offered, “At first we just thought you were afraid of urban legends, but really, it was about your sister.”

At that, Jonouchi turned away, keeping his eyes fixed on what was ahead. “Yeah, I just wish I had a damn clue what she’s so scared of.”

You didn’t miss the way his fists clenched at his sides. Despite calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend, you worried Mai’s reserved nature hadn’t changed much with the title.

Finally, the gathering you were walking towards came into view enough to make out. It was indeed a set up ready for a funeral, but that wasn’t all. There was a hole dug in front of a headstone, but the coffin was stood up on its end and it seemed to reflect the moonlight. Something moved and you realized that the casket was made completely out of glass. There was a figure trapped inside.

“Mai!”

You could tell Jonouchi wanted to run to her the moment he saw her, and he even took a few bounding steps forward, but forced himself to stop as quickly as he started. Again he cursed under his breath and looked around the area frantically.

“Any of you guys see any creeps ready to grab us?!” He demanded.

“No, but that doesn’t mean much,” Atem answered, “Patients, Jonouchi, we’ll get to her, but the fact that she doesn’t seem to be in any immediate danger says there’s something waiting in the shadows.

All of you kept your pace below a run, but having a friend in sight still made all of you quicken your steps just a bit. As you closed in you saw Mai resting her head on the inside of the lid to the coffin, her eyes closed and her shoulders shaking. You thought you heard a sob on the night air. The moment you were able to you read the large letters etched on the headstone beside her. _“Here lies Mai Kujaku. No one to anyone”_

Again you heard a sob and actually heard when Mai muttered under her breath “No one came.”

“Mai!” again Jou called out to her and this time you were all close enough for her to hear.

She jerked and turned as much as she could in her glass prison and you saw her eyes go wide when they landed on the lot of you. Jonouchi skidded to a halt in front of her casket and only then did you realize something else. The inside of it was slowly filling with dirt. It was already full up to her waist, encasing her and trapping her further.

“E-everyone, what are you doing here?” Disbelief was etched in her tone as she looked wide-eyed at Jou who was trying desperately to find a way to open the coffin.

“We’re here to save you what do you think we’re doing here, dummy!?” Jonouchi yelled back at her, growling as he found no opening for the lid.

“But...but I was alone.” Her eyes darted to the rest of you and much like you had seen with your other blonde friend, tear tracks stained her usually stunning face. “No one came. I’ve been here for hours but no one came to the funeral. No one gave a damn.”

“Idiot!” Jonouchi pressed his hands on the glass, right where he palms were pressed, “You really think we would leave you behind?! If we didn’t go to any funeral, it’s because there ain’t gonna be one!”

Her lip seemed to tremble as her boyfriend again resumed his efforts to find her a way out of the glass prison. Alone. Mai thought she had been left there to die with a headstone that said nothing of being beloved by anyone. _“No one to anyone.”_

As you and the twins joined the effort to find something to help, you said, “Mai, how many times do we have to tell you that we’re friends?”

“You’re important to all of us!” Yugi added as he too examined the coffin, but his assurances were marred by a gasp, “The dirt is filling up faster!”

Indeed, the slow pace sped up right before your eyes, as if sensing your determination and trying it’s damndest to prove Jou’s claim of no funerals wrong.

“We have to find a way to break the glass without hurting her,” Atem stated and turned to grab the shovel planted in the dirt by the headstone.

Just as he did the ground seemed to rumble beneath your feet. It was all any of you could do to stay on your feet and Jonouchi grabbed hold of Mai’s casket to keep it from falling into the dug out pit. The ground around you all split and cracked in four different spots, and more coffins with a matching headstones rose from the ground. In front of the upright caskets, the earth sank into perfect, six-foot deep holes. Bold letters were etched into each new gravemarker with taunting claims. _“Yugi Mutou. A coward even in death.” “Atem Mutou. Betrayed all who loved him.” “Katsuya Jonouchi. Failed all who counted on him.”_ You couldn’t stop your blood from running cold when you saw your name followed by the words: _“Useless until the bitter end.”_

“Damn it, no one’s dying on my watch!” Jonouchi yelled to the air and turned to the shovel Atem had made to grab but was stopped as figures stepped out from behind the new coffins.

They all looked identical, dressed in the same plain black suits, and all wearing blank white masks that seemed to be fused into their skin. Their expressionless faces caused a shiver to go down your spine as they closed in with silent steps. Atem grabbed your hand and pulled you closer to him as his eyes tried to keep track of them all. Jonouchi wasn’t having it, he charged and punched one right in the jaw.

It didn’t even flinch, its head snapped back to him and arms reached out, taking hold of Jou’s arms. Yugi had apparently taken charge and grabbed the shovel himself. He ran up to the one holding his friend and swung the flat of the spade right at its head. Again, it barely showed he had landed a hit at all and another closed in on Yugi at a slow pace, the poor young man staring back at it with wide eyes.

Mai was screaming at the top of her lungs, banging on the glass and demanding that the expressionless undertakers let them go. As the two others got within arm’s reach of you and Atem you pulled out a blade from your pocket, another souvenir from the shed in the woods. When one made to grab Atem you plunged the blade into its forearm.

No use, you might as well have huffed and puffed at it. Atem tried to fight back and you tried to grab the fingers closed around his wrist but something pulled you back. You looked up into that blank void of a face, its eyes nothing but emotionless pits and grip with a steel vice digging into your flesh.

Kicking and screaming you and your friends were dragged, slowly, relentlessly towards your coffins. You twisted your body painfully, trying to wriggle out of its hold until apparently it had had enough. With the strength of a robot, it threw you and rammed your head into a tree.

The world spun and your vision blurred, the sting of bark cutting into your scalp. You vaguely registered the pressure of the ground beneath your weight and something pulling at your ankles. Screams and shouts filled your ear like muffled, indistinct fog.

Bit by bit the world came back to you and the first thing you saw was Yugi kicking at his captor as it held him by the throat. You were being dragged by your ankles and you heard Mai yelling, screaming at Jonouchi. Your face turned as much as it could in the dirt, the act making your vision hazy again for a moment. On your other side, Jonouchi was thrown limp and unconscious over the shoulder of his undertaker and Atem was being dragged by his hair.

You didn’t have the strength to fight back as the thing holding you started to lift you into your coffin. Jonouchi was barely stirring back into consciousness as he was inching closer to his tomb and the twins weren’t far behind. Still, even through your hazy mind, you saw as Mai threw her body against her glass prison. Dirt was full up to her neck by now but still, she fought. She fought and punched and clawed until her casket fell. It fell right into the hole dug for it with a deafening _crash_ of shattering glass.

The undertaker had just tucked your body into the coffin as you watched Mai, covered in cuts and dirt and **absolutely livid**, crawl up from her grave.

Her eyes made a quick assessment of the situation and he ran towards Atem, whose captor hadn’t quite made it to his coffin yet. Mai braced herself and ran full speed into Atem’s undertaker and it actually stumbled! It tripped almost comically into the casket made for Atem and as the glass prison tipped over the lid slammed shut and sealed itself.

The one taking care of you looked around at the commotion and you finally had enough of your strength and mind back. You could sense it, Mai’s fire and willingness to spit her fears in the eye was weakening whatever was at play here, just like you with Broken Hana, the twins with Yami, and Jonouchi with Bloody Shizuka. You kicked out with all your strength and the undertaker before you stumbled back. It stumbled and fell, the back of its head cracking against a tall headstone.

You practically fell out of the casket and saw that Atem had managed to save Yugi from his captor. Now all that was left was Jonouchi and a quick look around showed that Mai was already well on the job of saving her boyfriend. She had grabbed the shovel Yugi dropped and as the last undertaker abandoned Jonouchi’s struggling form and tried to grab her she swung.

The thing fell right into the nearest pit, the one made for Mai herself. Your heart leapt, it should be over now! ...Right?

Nothing happened.

“Damn it, why won’t you die!” Mai yelled at the grave beneath her. Apparently falling into a pit of glass wasn’t enough.

When your eyes found the tall angel statuary standing guard at the foot of the pit the proverbial light bulb went off.

“Mai, the statue!”

When her eyes fell on where you were pointing, she understood in an instant. All of you closed in at the object as Mai grabbed one side and started to push. You and the boys pressed in on all its other sides and together you helped Mai tip the statue over. It sailed down into the pit, on top of the last undertaker. The moment it landed a thick cloud of dirt plumed out and engulfed you all.

Once again you and your friends were left coughing and spluttering as the scene shifted and swirled around you. At least this time you could reach out and touch another living being while the smoke cleared. An arm wrapped around your shoulder and a warm embrace calmed you as the room came back into focus.

No gravestones, no coffins, not even a night sky. In fact, far too normal looking sunlight came in from the window of the large bedroom you were now standing in. You looked up and saw that Atem was the one who had wrapped his arm around you. He was looking around the room as well, and he let his arm fall from your shoulders as he breathed a small sigh, daring to feel relieved that another nightmare was over.

You looked over Atem’s shoulder and saw Jonouchi holding Mai close, gripping her as if she might disappear if he let her go. He was muttering under his breath in her ear, lightly chastising her for thinking he or any of the gang would ever leave her behind.

A gentle call of your name made you look to your other side, and you saw Yugi’s big lavender eyes filled with concern. “Your head’s bleeding, you should sit down for a minute.”

You must have looked like a complete mess, little cuts all over, one bandage covered gash on your leg, bruises on your wrists, and now a concussion inducing blow to the head. Despite the aches littering your body like a wasteland you still found the energy to keep going. Only one friend left to save, maybe it was being able to see that light at the end of the tunnel that kept you energized.

“No time for that, Yugi, we need to keep moving.” You gave him the largest smile you could manage to set his mind at ease, but his eyes still bore into yours.

He must have understood though, because eventually he closed his eyes and sighed. “Just don’t get hurt anymore, okay? I can’t stand seeing you get hurt.”

“I’ll try my best, but we still have that bloody psychopath out there to deal with.”

“Anzu!” Mai’s voice followed your words and you all turned to her. She had let go of Jonouchi and was looking near frantic as she said, “Anzu and I got separated. We came up here and the moment we did some creep with a knife attacked us! I think he took her!”

“Did you see where he might have taken her?” Atem asked.

Mai shook her head, “My bet is it would be on this floor though.”

“Well then what are we waiting for?” Jonouchi marched towards the door and looked as though he was about to throw it open, but paused at the last second. He pressed his ear to the wood and waved the rest of you over silently. When you were all crowded around him he whispered, “I can hear something out there, I think it’s our maniac.” A brief pause. “He’s goin’ down the hall.”

With a caution you weren’t used to seeing from Jonouchi, he opened the door just a crack and you could peer out just enough to see down the hallway. The outline of the man who had attacked you in the hallway was retreating farther into the house. He was muttering to himself, cursing and hissing with ire in his tone. You had him barely in sight as he made it to the last door on the right and opened it.

“That must be where he’s keeping Anzu,” Yugi said just loud enough for the rest of you to hear.

You almost jumped when the stalker slammed the door shut so hard that it bounced back open, staying slightly ajar. The slam was followed by a shout of surprise from the depths of the room. Anzu.

“Let’s go,” with that, Atem gently pushed the door open.

The five of you stepped out into the hall, cautious of the floorboards creaking underfoot. At least the doors on either side of you were shut as you walked, that lessened the anxiety of more monsters lurking. That, and the fact that you were certain the stalker was the last monster to overcome. Or at least, as certain as you could be.

When your party of five reached the door, the sound of angered muttering, metal clanking together, and very faint sobs wafted out from the door. Again you and your friend peered through the crack.

The stalker was standing with his back to the door and he was rummaging through a toolbox as he cursed to himself. “Nuisances, all of them trying to ruin our perfect night together! I even got blood on my new shirt I wore just for you!”

There, with her arms pulled behind her back and hands tied to the post of a plush fourposter bed, Anzu sat on the ground. “What did you do to them? What did you do to my friends!?” she demanded, keeping her tears at bay and actually managing to sound a bit intimidating even given her state.

“I haven’t done anything to them, yet. I went hunting all over the house and couldn’t find them, but I’m sure they’re still here- little vermin scuttering about trying to take you away from me! I won’t have it!”

Finally having found what he was looking for, the man let out a triumphant laugh as he pulled a large serrated hunting knife from the toolbox.

“I’ll cut them all up, all into tiny little pieces, and then we can finally be together!”

“No!” Anzu struggled as best she could against her ropes, “You can’t have them! I won’t let you hurt my friends you sick bastard!”

The stalker did not like that. He turned around, his dirty face alight with freshly stoked anger as he advanced on her. “Name-calling now, are we? After everything I’ve done for you, after I gave you the finest room in the house and promised to take care of you, you still spit in my face?!” He brandished the knife and your heart stopped when you thought he might charge at her, but he only looked at it lovingly, as if the cold steel cooled his anger. “Well now, I think I’ll just have to make you watch while I cut up one of your friends. A fitting punishment, I think. How about the short one with the big dumb eyes? I have to get him back for slamming that door into my head anyway.”

Your fists clenched as Anzu resumed her yelling, demanding her captor leave her friends out of this. You couldn’t take this anymore, surely the five of you could take this psycho and Anzu was already fighting her fears. But, if you charged in like you wanted to, it might just have a bloody end. Instinct, or cold calculation?

**~**~**

**Choice 6: Kick the door open, or Wait?**


	15. Choice 6: Kick the door open

If you waited who knew what that psycho would do? There was a time for cautious and a time for action.

“I say we go in there and overpower the guy now?” you whispered as low as possible while the stalker continued to mumble to himself and look between his blade and Anzu with so-called “loving” eyes.

“Sounds good to me, I can’t stand listening to that creep anymore,” Jonouchi hissed back.

“Guys wait-”

Yugi’s words were cut off at the stalker placed his fingertips over his lips, then put said fingers to Anzu’s forehead as he loudly proclaimed, “I’ll be back soon, sweetie! After I take care of our pest problem we can have a nice, candle-lit dinner together!” He started towards the door, “And if you’re good, I’ll even take the ropes off.”

He hadn’t noticed your group yet, and someone started to scramble away from the door but you rose to your full height, waited a beat, then kicked the door as hard as you could. The wood slammed into the stalker with enough force to knock him to the ground with a groan of pain.

Jonouchi took it from there, he charged in and pressed his foot down hard on the hand that held the large knife. Mai dove in next, collecting the knife as the stalker’s fingers opened from the pain, allowing Jou to grab the creep by the collar and land a mean blow on his jaw.

Anzu called out to all of you, tears welling in her eyes as Yugi and Atem rushed to her side. “You’re all okay, I was so scared he got to one of you already,” she said as Yugi worked at the knots around her wrists.

Atem started to say something reassuring to her, but your attention was drawn back to the fight as the stalker managed to headbutt Jonouchi. The blonde stumbled and the creep took the chance to land a hard blow to Jonouchi’s gut.

“Don’t touch her, she’s mine!” the stalker screamed as he turned towards Anzu and the twins.

Mai took that moment to put the man’s knife to good used and plunged it into his turned back. He screamed in pain and stumbled, but still remained standing somehow! Mai couldn’t pull the knife free from the skin and muscle and in her effort to try, the stalker turned and struck her with the back of his hand.

At least that put his back to you again. You leapt onto his back, locking one arm tight around his neck and using your other to shift and twist the blade protruding from his skin.

Dirty nails dug at the skin of your forearm, but you held tight, if choking him out was the only way to buy time then dammit you were going to do it. For once that day, blood that wasn’t your own stained your clothes as the knife cut its wound larger in the man's back. He was gasping and clawing, but your heart chanced a triumphant cheer when Jonouchi came back into your sight, looking as livid as ever. His nose was bleeding from the man’s headbut, but his fists struck true as you held onto the creep. One- two- three blows to the stomach and you felt the stalker starting to weaken in your hold.

“He’s almost out, keep steady,” Atem encouraged.

He and Yugi had untied Anzu and the three with Mai were standing on the sidelines, all posed ready to jump in if need be. But you weren’t the only one who saw them. When the creep jerked his head towards Anzu, his eyes went wide and you could practically feel his body regaining strength.

“No! You- can’t- **have her**!”

The man roared despite his lack of air and kicked out with his foot, landing a hard blow to Jou’s knee. Your friend went down and just as he did the stalker thrashed and twisted in your hold. You heard someone shout when the man rammed his back, and thus you, into the wall. You couldn’t stop your grip from loosening and the moment it did the stalker jerked, sending you flying off his back and into a dresser on the other side of the room.

Your body roared in pain as your back made contact and you worried something as broken as you fell to the ground in a heap. Someone called your name and you managed to open your eyes, gritting your teeth against the pain as Mai rushed to your side. You locked eyes on the fight as Mai tried to help you up. Jonouchi wasn’t letting a bad knee stop him and he along with the twins were keeping the stalker away from Anzu.

Yugi and Atem both shoved him hard at the same time and the stalker actually stumbled, crashing into the tale in front of the window. He roared again and set his toolbox to the floor with a crash.

“Little brats! You won’t win, she mine you hear me!?”

He reached down to the scattered tools and picked up a box knife. Again he said something about Anzu being his as he charged. You opened your mouth, desperate to tell the boys to run or dodge. The man gave a war cry and-

_Crack!_

Anzu had darted in and swung a hefty wrength with all her might, plowing it right into her stalker's face. The man didn’t even have time to wail in pain as he fell back, caught his legs on the table behind him, and crashed through the large window. His scream echoed off the side of the house as he fell, but it was abruptly silenced by a wet crunch.

None of you dared to move for a moment. Anzu stood there, wrench still in hand as she looked at the window with wide eyes. A thought came to you in that moment, of course it had to be Anzu who finished him off. This was her fear to face after all. The rest have you probably could have punched and choked him for hours and not gotten anywhere.

“I think it’s over,” you tempted after a moment.

“Only one way to find out,” Atem added and as one all of you moved towards the window.

Relief washed over you when you saw a still form on the ground below and after a moment of viewing, the body vanished in a puff of black smoke. Anzu finally seemed to let the stress overtake her, and Mai had to shift her hold on you to catch Anzu as she swayed on the spot.

“I’m sorry you guys, I don’t even know what happened, one minute I was with Mai trying to find Jonouchi and the next that man- that _thing_ came after me.

“Don’t apologize,” Mai assured in a tone more gentle than you had heard her use before.

Yugi placed his hand on Anzu’s shoulder as he added, “Something happened to all of us, you weren’t the only one who was helpless for a bit.”

When she gave him a confused look Yugi explained the theories about the house. She took the idea easier than you thought she would, given her experience had been the one truest to reality. Maybe the stalker’s superhuman endurance or the fact that he had poofed into smoke helped.

“Well no matter what’s happening here, we have everyone now, so let's get out of here,” Jonouchi’s voice was firm as he urged all of you towards the door of the girlish room.

You couldn’t agree more, and gave Mai a pat on the back to assure her that you were fine to stand on your own now. No one disagreed with Jou’s next plan of action and all of you moved towards the door. Still wary, Atem took the lead and peeked out into the hallway with caution first.

“We’re clear, for now,” he said as he turned back to the rest of you, “Still, stay as close to each other as possible. I doubt this house will be letting us leave so easily.”

With that all of you filed out into the hall two at a time, Anzu taking your hand for silent assurance just as Jounouchi had taken Mai’s. The twins turned to the hall that likely led to the stairs but both stopped in their tracks as Yugi gasped. You were tempted to shout a curse and a ‘what now?!’ but you two froze when you saw what they did.

There was a girl standing in the middle of the hallway. She didn’t look murderous, no knife or even a scared face. Hell, she looked rather pretty with her well-kempt long black hair and white dress. Still, there was an unnatural paleness to her face and a hovering glow to her appearance that sent you on edge again.

“That’s- that’s her!” Yugi said, eyes wide on the girl, “That’s the girl I saw in the forest before the car stalled.”

“I think she is also the one who lured us into the basement, Yugi.” Atem’s eyes were much harsher as he looked at the girl, but he made no move, likely trying to figure the best approach for this.

That’s when you took note of something else. Her eyes were shining with tears. Silent drops ran down her cheeks as she raised a shaking hand and pointed a finger at the door that lay on the right between her and your party.

“She wants us to go in there,” Mai put forth.

At the words the ghostly figure lowered her hand and her face looked so sad and stricken that you felt your heart go out to her as she mouthed a simple word: ‘please’.

“I...I think we should do it.” Yugi’s words made all of you snap your attention to him.

His face looked determined and you knew he wasn’t making the suggestion lightly. Still…

“Are you nuts?!” Jonouchi yelled, “We’ve been chased by ghosts and ax murders all day and you want to go into the room the ghost girl tells us to?!”

Mai shook her head, “We shouldn’t get caught up in another trap, we should try to find a way out of here.”

“Maybe she’s trying to show us one…” Anzu offered.

Only you and Atem had not given your opinion. Something still wasn’t right, you could feel it. Finding the exit probably wasn’t going to be as easy as walking out the front door. Still, could you really trust this specter?

**~**~**

**Choice 7: Ignore the ghost, or Investigate the room?**


	16. Choice 6: Wait

You had scolded Jonouchi for acting on impulse, you couldn’t let yourself do the same. You needed a plan.

“Any ideas?” you whispered to Atem as the stalker continued to mumble to himself and look between his blade and Anzu with so-called “loving” eyes.

In answer, Atem leaned back and motioned for all of you to take a few steps away from the door. “He obviously won’t hurt her at the moment, he wants all of us instead,” he started as quiet as he could. “We need to catch him unawares.”

“I..I think I have an idea,” Yugi interjected, but he gave a start when the sound of footsteps picked up on the other side of the door.

The lot of you scrambled and someone motioned to hide in the adjacent rooms. You grabbed Atem, who was nearest you and darted for the room on the right. Quieter than you expected, the door slid open and you two darted inside, you waited for the others to follow, but they had gone to the door on the opposite side of the hall. When Yugi saw that you and Atem had found cover, he nodded to you and shut their door. You did the same, though the old fashioned bamboo framed screen felt much less safe than a modern door.

Atem took his hold on your hand and tugged you away from the screen just as someone came stomping into the hallway. The wall beside the door felt much more secure and you two crouched down low, still able to see shadows dance through the silkscreen. Beside you, Atem was still as a statute as he watched the screen but his hand tightened around yours when the stalker stepped closer.

You could see the outline of his finger stop in front of your door and you found your arm going around Atem to find some comfort. If the psycho had stopped on the other side of the hall you might have been able to sneak attack him, but now you were on the defensive and at a serious disadvantage if he opened that door.

You held your breath and Atem leaned into you as you watched the shadow lift his arm. With a rip he brought the blade down and cut through the screen with ease! The next moment Atem was jumping to his feet and pulling you with him as a bang echoed from the other side of the hall.

“Over here, creep!”

Jonouchi’s call made the man turn away from the splintered door and Jou landed a mean right hook right to the attacker’s jaw. The stalker stumbled and crashed through what remained of the screen door but Jonoichi didn’t stop, he grabbed the psycho by the collar and pulled him back up for another blow.

Atem grabbed your arm and made you look at him as he said, “Go, get Anzu, we’ll handle him.”

With a nod from you and Atem’s gentle push, you were dodging the fray of the two fighting men and stumbling back out into the hallway. Unfortunately, you had to look back when you heard your friend scream in pain. The stalker had recovered his knife and managed to slice across Jonouchi’s stomach. He was still standing though and still fighting, so you gritted your teeth and pushed on to save another friend.

Anzu had twisted her pose towards the door as much as possible and her eyes went wide when she saw you. She called out your name in relief, “what’s going on out there? Who’s hurt?!”

“Jonouchi can handle himself, besides, everyone else is backing him up,” you assured as you crouched down and started working at the knots.

“I’m sorry, I tried to stop him but he- he-”

You shushed her, wishing you had time to give her a comforting hug, but you had to settle for, “None of this is your fault, Anzu, let’s just get out of here.”

The ropes fell and Anzu wasted no time in throwing them off of her. You helped her to her feet and together you two ran back out into the hallway. However, the moment you turned the corner you heard Yugi shout a warning and something flash in front of your vision.

Anzu had pulled you back just enough to dodge the blade, but the man was still too close! The stalker’s crazed grin was only marred by fresh blood splatter across his face and he didn’t even have to move to have you in striking distance.

You raised your arm but he brought the blade down with tremendous force, screaming “MINE!” at the top of his lungs as the blade pierced your chest.


	17. Choice 7: Ignore the ghost

After everything that happened to you and your friends that night, you were with Jou, there was no way you were following the suggestions of a ghost!

“Come on, guys, we need to get out of here, we’re all hurt and need to find a way to get help.”

Your honest heartfelt words seemed to sway those on the fence and even Yugi agreed to move on with a resigned shake of his head. However, also at your words, the ghost girl’s face fell even more and she lowered her hand in defeat before vanishing in a pale puff of mist.

With her no longer blocking your path, the rest of you didn’t waste any time in continuing down the hallway. The stairs were large enough to let your group file down them two at a time, but you hadn’t even made it to the bottom step before Yugi pointed out something crucial.

“The front door is gone!”

Indeed, beyond the genkan, the entrance you and your friends had come through, was gone. The medium-toned wood of the walls beside it looked as if they had been stretched and pulled across the expanse of the doorway, creating one smoothe wall.

“Try going through the garden, maybe?” Anzu suggested.

The mere thought of the garden, or rather, the woods surrounding it made ice crawl across your skin. You had to remind yourself that you weren’t alone this time. The more your numbers had grown, the easier it had been to defeat whatever monster was present. Surely now that you were all together you could beat anything this demon house threw at you.

“We can try that way, but,” Atem looked over his shoulder at you, a worried question playing in his eyes.

In answer, you gave him a firm nod of your head. You would be safe with your friends, you knew it. With that assurance, Atem and Yugi took the last few steps down with the rest of you following behind. When you turned into the room that led to the garden, you saw with a start that that doorway was closing as well. The walls on either side were indeed stretching, slowly consuming the open doorway and your chance at freedom.

“Hurry!” Mai called and in a group, feet started thundering as you all ran for the closing passage.

Yugi and Atem of course made it there first and leapt through the opening with the ease of gymnasts. Jonouchi held tight to Mai’s hand as they jumped through together, but the shifting wall caught Jonouchi in the shoulder as he passed. You barely had time to tuck your arms in as Anzu and you were next, but your heart dropped when the toe of your right foot caught on the wood. You were at least thankful that you were falling on the other side, but you braced yourself for the pain of the fall, as a horrible vision of your foot getting sliced off in the closing doorway flashed through your mind.

Strong arms caught you in an instant and you were pulled free just as the creek of wood ceased, signaling the passage had closed. Your breath came out in puffs as you looked up and met eyes with Atem. With another move, he pulled your prone body upright. When you were steady on your feet he looked you over before locking eyes with you, again asking a silent question.

Again you nodded your head and said, “Thanks.”

Satisfied, he released you and you started looking around at the landscape before you. Everything seemed normal out here. The plants weren’t morphing into creatures to kill you and no monsters seemed to be lurking about. Still, that normality is what made you stay on edge.

“The front pathway would be in that direction,” Yugi said, pointing to the right and around the corner of the house.

Again your nerves seemed to flare up as you saw trees hugging the side of the house. You’d have to go through the forest to get there.

“It shouldn’t be far, we won’t have to go through much of the forest to get there,” Yugi added, before looking over everyone with a smile, sweet and reassuring. How he found the strength to have that during all this you had no idea, though you couldn’t help but be grateful for the positivity.

Again without much of a word you six moved in a group, heading for the trees beside the house.

“Try to keep your eyes straight ahead, guys,” you warned, “I didn’t even take two steps into the forest but the moment I turned around it closed in on me like I had been dropped in the middle of it.”

When your group were well among the trees you were relieved to see that even with them, you could see the pathway leading up to the house. Or, in this case away from it and back out to the main road, to freedom.

Everyone seemed to pick up their steps as one by one they noticed it as well. Halfway there. More than halfway. There were only a few rows of trees now, and freedom was just in arm’s reach.

Then you heard it, behind you, the sound that still managed to make your heart stop. The sound of snapping bones and gravely, pained breathing. You bit your lip and refused to look back, taking your own advice as Anzu beside you heard the noise too. She started to look over her shoulder but must have remembered your words as she jerked her head back forward, grabbed your hand, and sped up even more.

“What the hell is that?!” Jonouchi all but yelled, obviously killing himself by not looking behind him.

The sound of leaves and dirt shifting as something crawled after you echoed in the still air but still you refused to turn. The pathway was so close, freedom was so close!

Then someone skidded to a halt in front of you and you weren’t the only one caught unawares, because Jonouchi couldn’t stop himself before he collided with Atem’s back. Mai was barely able to check her fall but the tumbling men still caught Yugi in the chaos and the three fell to the dirt in a heap.

When you looked up, you saw four figures blocking your path. The faceless undertakers from Mai’s nightmare, standing there, still and firm as statues. Now standing still, the noises behind you felt even more frightening and when you heard that choked breathing right in your ear you couldn’t stop yourself from turning around.

You lashed out as you turned and somehow managed to catch the cursed woman with the back of your hand. Anzu grabbed your arm and pulled you away from the hissing broken woman. Hana was on the ground, her body in just as much disarray as you had imagined her before. The only addition were the horrible burn marks covering her body.

When your back made contact with Mai’s you looked over your shoulder to find the boys had gotten back to their feet and everyone was huddling together back to back to back. Broken Hana and the undertakers weren’t the only ones present. A wispy call of Jonouchi’s name drew your attention to the Shizuka Bloody Mary stepping through the trees, blood pouring from her eyes and fresh thin cuts all along her body. The sound of blades scraping against the trees snapped your attention to the other side. Yami covered in fresh blood and Anzu’s stalker grinning madly were blocking the other expanse of trees, looking as pleased as could be.

“You didn’t think you could escape that easily, did you?” Yami said, adding a mocking “tisk tisk” and wave of his finger like he was telling off a naughty child.

“We aren’t afraid of any of you anymore!” Yugi shouted, “We’re stronger together and we won’t let our fears control us!”

“Maybe,” Shizuka whispered, the words drawn out and airy, “but you still can’t escape.

With a snap, Hana bent her broken neck to stare up at you, her words choked and labored as she said “Don’t- know. Don’t kn-know.”

“You don’t know how to kill master,” the talkative stalker elaborated, “and since you don’t, you’re going to stay here as our pets forever and ever and ever.”

With that, one by one, your fears closed in and the six of you were helpless to stop it.


	18. Choice 7: Investigate the room

“I- I think Yugi’s right.”

Your words were unsure even to yourself. Maybe it was because you didn’t even know why you felt the urge to investigate, but either way, you think you felt the same thing Yugi did. Something about this spirit simply didn’t seem malicious in the slightest.

“I agree,” Atem put forth and looked over his shoulder back at the rest of you, “Besides, I don’t think getting out of here is as easy as walking out the front door.”

Jonouchi cursed lowly under his breath, “Alright, but the moment something happens, I’m pulling us all outta there, got it?”

Anzu reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry, we’re together now and there’s strength in numbers, right?”

When Anzu flashed her hopeful smile towards Mai as well, the blonde seemed to relax a bit herself and nodded in agreement.

Your eyes flicked back to the spirit and you saw her smiling. Not the malicious sick grin of Yami or Anzu’s stalker, but a genuine smile of thanks. With that, her form dissipated in a wash of pale mist.

Again Atem took the lead and stepped up to the door she had indicated, but his brow furrowed when he turned the handle. “It’s locked.”

As if he had said the magic word, a clicking sound echoed from the metal handle. Atem shared a look with his brother, but opened the door all the same. He was cautious enough to step back as he shoved it open, allowing himself and the rest of you a wide berth to look in on the room.

It was long and spacious, looking as if it spanned most of that side of the house. The numerous shelves stuffed full of books, papers scattered about, and fine-looking desk said that it was a study of some sort. There wasn’t a soul inside that you could see, so, the six of you cautiously stepped into the room.

To your relief nothing spooky happened, the door didn’t slam shut behind you, books didn’t fly off the shelves, the desk chair didn’t even move.

“So what now?” Mai asked as she too scanned the room.

Atem walked up to the desk and peered down at the books sitting atop it. You and Yugi joined his side while the other three looked over the bookshelves. Atem picked up an old leathery-looking book with strange symbols embossed on the cover. When he opened it old yellow paper crinkled and you saw hand-written calligraphy inked on the pages.

“What is it?” you asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” Atem answered.

A moment passed where Atem looked over the pages, then Yugi touched your arm to gain your attention. When you looked up at him, he was pointing to one end of the room. There was a large comfy looking armchair in the corner, with an old fashioned space heater, overhead light, and a table. Atop the table was a fancy set of writing pens and another book.

“I think that may be a journal or something,” Yugi said, “I’m going to check it out while Atem figures out what that thing is.”

~**~

**Alright, everyone, this choice is a little different than the previous ones! For getting this far, I'm giving you a little treat, a freebie chapter with your favorite boy! Just pick who you want to interact with during the next chapter, no death or negative end, just a slightly romantic reprieve from all the death haha. **

**Don't get too comfortable though, there's still danger ahead! **

**Choice 8 Go with Yugi, or Stay with Atem?**


	19. Choice 8: Go with Yugi

“I’ll go with you,” you said without a second thought and fell in step beside him as he walked to the other side of the room.

When you two reached the little reading area your attention was immediately drawn to the book, or rather, the thing atop it. Yugi reached out and picked the old photo up, and your mouth fell open when you saw the people in it. Standing in the garden of the house was a middle-aged man with his arm wrapped around a young girl. Both were smiling brightly at some long-forgotten happy memory and the girl leaned her head on the man’s shoulder. The true shock, however, was the fact that the girl was undoubtedly the one who had led you and your friends here. Not only that but...

“That man, he’s the one I saw in the garden when we first got here. He looked older, but I’m sure it’s him!”

Yugi nodded at your words, “I think these two were the people who lived here before...well before whatever happened, happened.”

“So I guess the real question is, what exactly did ‘happen’?”

Yugi set the old black and white photo aside and picked up the leathery journal, “Let’s find out.”

The book crinkled and cracked a bit as he opened it, the way old books do when they’ve been neglected and unread for years and years. As he turned it to the first entry you moved to look over his shoulder and he shifted almost on reflex so you two were pressed close and could read it together.

_“May 3rd, 1928_

_The house is quiet. Too large and too cold for one lone man. Even my own laughter does not fill the halls. I try to tend my garden in her honor, she always did love the garden so, but it doesn't bring a smile to my face now. My light is gone. My dear Himiko taken from this world too young, too soon. I say that I am a man of healing, how then could I let my child be taken by illness? How can I call myself a father when I let my daughter die?_

_I know now why there are stories of men obsessing over reanimating the dead; why good men of science dig up graves and butcher bodies. I know. Yet I also know that such means are not possible. Not by I at least. But there must be a way. There must! Himiko was always such a hopeful child, always smiling as assuring me that everything would be fine, perhaps that is why I still feel it deep in my heart, that there’s a way. That somehow I can bring her back, that I can see my light again and give back the life she never got to fully live._

_Science can no longer help me, so I am turning to other means. I am a practical man, but I know that out of all the tales and legends from around the world, from every culture, there _ ** _must_ ** _ be some grain of truth to them. A truth that I will uncover. I will delve into the occult, the supernatural and I _ ** _will_ ** _ find a way to bring my dear Himiko back._

_I am no fool, however. I know that this is a dangerous road. If there is a grain of truth in demons and spirits who can grant your dearest desire, there also must be truth in all the tales of men going mad when faced with such things. That is why I am starting this journal, I hope that it will keep me grounded, that writing my journey down will help keep my sanity intact._

_And if it does not...well, I am already going mad. Life without my light is no life to live at all. Madness awaits me at either end, but at least down one path, I might do right by my daughter and give her what she was robbed of.”_

When you finished reading the first passage you looked over at Yugi, who looked back at you with the same expression. Both of you knew where this was going, but without a word, Yugi flipped to the next entry.

_“June 12th 1928_

_These books tell me nothing! I have exhausted the shelves of every store in every town nearby. I gathered and read every tome and scroll I could find on the occult day in and day out; but still nothing. Oh, they tell me how to summon demons for revenge. They tell me how to make a deal with a poltergeist who will make those who have wronged me pay. Some even talk of how to banish evil spirits and demons, but none have given me what I want! Are people so selfish and cruel that all they have ever cared about is revenge? I want justice, but there is no one to punish for Himiko’s death besides myself. Myself, and whatever cruel god might have taken her. I care not for these petty wants of violence. I need something else. A being who will grant more than revenge, who will give me any wish. I will pay whatever price is required, I simply need the means to summon such a creature!_

_I need to broaden my resources. I need to travel. The simple fishermen and farmers of these towns have no need for witchcraft and demonology. I will find a way, even if I have to cross the seas to find it.”_

The next few passages shortly told of his travels to the other side of Japan and of each temple he visited where monks refused to answer his questions. He did not condemn them for denying him, but his entries were certainly getting progressively more irritated and spiteful.

_“November 29th 1928_

_Wakayama prefecture has plenty of temples and mystic men for me to call on but still none of them can answer my questions. Many of the monks I speak to say they will pray for me. That they will pray for my soul not to be consumed by darkness. That they hope I’ll see the wrongness in my goal and abandon it. They don’t understand. How could they? These are chaste, holy men who have never known the joy of being a father. Nor the pain of watching a child die. They do not understand what it was like to watch your light in life slowly get dimmer day by day, until it went out completely._

_I avoid most temples now and seek out lowlier men of power, ones who care not for my health or my soul, who will tell me means to summon the worst creatures known to myth. But still none of them fit my needs quite right. I buy every book I can on demonology and myths, but the few I’ve found that might be what I need are indeed simple stories. The summonings will not work. I need to go farther. Winter is here, but I will travel west and see what Europe has to offer me.”_

_“March 13th 1929_

_I thought France might prove promising, I hear tales of how they are a romantic country so I thought perhaps their spirits and supernatural being might be more to my use; that something here might see my just goal and have an answer for me. The translator I hired abandoned me when she realized what I was looking for, calling me a mad man and urging me to go home. I can’t, I’ve come too far and feel as if I’m getting close. I _ ** _know_ ** _ I am getting close. In an underground bar a man said he had no type of spell to sell me for what I need, but he said mystics in Ireland may be of help.”_

_“May 18th 1929_

_This land is full of mystics and witches, but most seemed to be more akin to the monks of my homeland. One actually slapped me across the face when I asked her for a spell or other means to bring back the dead. She brandished a strange talisman at me and said the fates would not be kind to me for bringing imbalance to the world. Others simply go pale and wide eyed before quickly throwing me out of their establishments, muttering chants and prayers under their breaths. I buy books and tomes here as well, but I have a harder time deciphering them with my limited knowledge of English writing._

_I know I’m close, but this still is not what I am looking for.”_

_“June 30th 1929_

_I finally have it! Over a year of searching and I have it. A man in an old alleyway shop had what I needed. He had all manner of odd and mystic things. When I told him my story I saw the greed in his eyes. I know he cares not grief and only gave me the time of day because of my money, but I don’t care. I have learned enough about these things in my travels to know he is not simply swindling me, either._

_He gave me a locket, one that has a deal making demon sealed inside of it. Apparently his grandmother, also a mystic witch, trapped the demon away some decades ago. The only catch is that he had no knowledge of how to release the thing. That is something I can manage with. For a hefty price he gave me the locket and his grandmother’s journal so that I might find a way to free the demon and get my wish._

_Finally, I have hope again.”_

It wasn’t until you saw the shaking of Yugi’s hand as he turned the page again, that you realized he was trying to hold back his tears as he read. Your heart ached at the sight of his glistening eyes, so you reached out and took his hand in yours. He turned his head a little, able to meet your eyes with the small movement. The two of you were so close that you could feel his breath tickling your cheek.

He gave a cute little sniffle, “Sorry, it’s just...reading all this. He was so sad and alone without her…”

You nodded, not being able to deny the lump that had formed in your throat while reading and at Yugi’s tears, you felt your own welling up now. “He was willing to sacrifice everything just to see his daughter again.”

At seeing your tears Yugi reached out and wrapped his arms around you. At the comfort, you couldn’t help but bury your face in the crook of his neck, not only weighed down by the emotion of the words on the pages, but by everything from the past few hours. You were hurt, tired, and so strung out from constant adrenaline and frayed nerves that you felt burnt around the edges. You wanted this to be over, you wanted to go home damn it!

“It’s going to be okay,” Yugi whispered in your ear and you felt his hand reach up to run through your hair with gentle care. “We’re going to find a way out of here, and when we do, we’ll have all week to recover at the hot springs.”

You actually smiled at that, then laughed a moment later. When you pulled back just a bit, Yugi was smiling at you. Yugi had always been such a ray of light in any situation. Perhaps that was why the man’s journey in the journal struck you so deeply. The mere thought of losing your own light...well, you could understand traveling to the other side of the world to get that light back.

Without thinking much, you leaned in and pressed a quick peck on Yugi’s forehead. “I know we’ll get out of this together, Yugi. I feel like I can do anything with you.”

To your surprise, Yugi didn’t blush as profusely as you thought he might. Sure his cheeks got a tad pink, but he was easily able to return your smile and whisper, “I feel the same way when I’m with you.”

Then, without another word, He picked the journal back up and the two of you continued reading.

For months the man tried to free his demon. He returned home, back to this house as soon as he obtained the locket and immediately worked breaking the seal trapping his new guest. He mentioned a few times how old friends and villagers would see him when he went into town for food or more supplies, how they would talk to him in grave tones, or comment on how ill he looked, asking after his health and urging him to take care of himself.

_“They try to tell me that Himiko would not want to see me like this, but they know nothing. I know they are simply concerned, but I will only be well when my child is back home again.”_

Months turned into another year, then another. His entries got shorter and shorter and his words in them even more disturbing.

_“The crack in the locket unleashed something, I know it. I’m close. _ ** _I’m close!_ ** _ I don’t give a damn about the shadows. They mock me everytime I leave my study but I care not. Perhaps it the demon inside gaining power. No matter, the beast will be under my control soon.”_

There seemed to be lucid moments where he wrote like he did in the first entries, but between every two or three there were hastily scribbled notes scratched into the pages so hard the page tore through in spots.

_“My light. Where is my light? The shadows mock me but I don’t care. I’ll have my light again soon. Soon soon. Himiko will make them go away. I just need my light again.”_

When Yugi turned the page again he said, “I think this is the last entry…”

_“October 30th 1931_

_I have it! I have the way! I spell of unbinding. I tried something similar before and earned a crack in the locket, I know it will work this time. I am no fool, I see my old passages. Locking myself in this loney house for months on end has driven me to moments of madness. My original fear is coming true. It is alright now, though, I have the way and Himiko will be returned to me. When she’s here everything will return to normal. We’ll fix the garden up together. I’ll return to my medical practice. We’ll be a happy family again._

_I have my tools and a means to keep myself safe from the demon. And if the worst should happen, I will take the demon with me. The shadows are following me and I feel as if it has been dark outside for days, but I press on. I’ll perform the ritual in the attic and keep any damage done to a minimum there if possible._

_I’ll see you again soon, Himiko. I love you.”_

Your eyes met Yugi’s in an instant and both of you said at the same time, “The attic!”

Yugi closed the book and together you two moved to walk back to where Atem still stood, but just as you did, Jonouchi called out to you all.

“Uh, guys, you’re gonna want to see this.”

You looked up and saw him, Mai, and Anzu standing at one corner of the room. There was a pile of something covered in a sheet in front of them, and he ripped the cover off with one hard jerk. Your eyes went wide at the sight, canisters and canisters of gasoline were stacked together, the metal a bit corroded over the decades they had sat there.

“The hell do think this is for?” Jou asked, looking the containers over. “There’s enough here to bring down the house and more.”

“He wanted to take the demon with him...” Yugi said as he looked down at the journal again.

“Demon?” Anzu repeated, looking around at Yugi with her eyes widened a bit.

“What did you find, Yugi?” Atem came out from behind the fine old desk as he asked and quickly joined his brother’s side.

“This journal was made by the man who lived here last. He wanted to bring his daughter Himiko back from the dead,” Yugi held up the picture that had been with the book, “She was the ghost in the hallway. Her father was obsessed with bringing her back and freed a demon in order to do it. I don’t think he survived either.”

Atem actually nodded, “That explains this then,” he waved the odd tome he had been studying, “this is a book on demonology and dark magic. It talks about sealing demons away, but also explains rituals on how to free them. This creature is obviously still haunting the house and is what’s been toying with us this whole time. Does the diary mention anything about how he summoned the demon?”

“He said that it was trapped inside a locket by a witch. He spent years trying to find a way to free the demon and get his wish from it,” you added as the other three joined your little circle.

“Certain passages of this book are highlighted. It looks as though he found the spell the witch used and the corresponding unbinding ritual.” Atem opened the book and flipped to a specific page. You could see familiar handwriting scribbled in the margins, the ink scratched in the same way the frantic entries in the diary were. “That is not all. It says here the binding spell also permanently weakens the demon, so that if he is ever unleashed again, he can be stopped by something simple but powerful.”

“And what’s that exactly?” Mai asked, a slight snap to her tone.

Atem’s eyes flickered to the gasoline containers and he and Yugi said at the same time, “Fire.”

Jonouchi clapped his hands together. “Alright then! If this demon really is still lurking around and I say we do what the old man couldn’t and light this place up. Kill the house, kill the demon, right?”

“Do you really think it’s that simple?” Anzu asked, crossing her arms and looking a bit nervous. “I doubt this demon will let us destroy is so easily.”

“The man said he was going to perform the ritual in the attic,” Yugi offered, “maybe we should try to find more answers there?”

Mai scoffed, “Do we really want to waste the time? The thing hasn’t been able to get to us the whole time we’ve been snooping around this room, so maybe it power is weakened now. I say we knock over a few of those canisters, light a match, and hightail it out of here while the flames do their magic.”

You bit your lip before sounding off your own opinion, much like the girl in the hallway, you saw both sides of the argument. So, search for even more answers, or take the ones you have and burn this hell house down?

**~**~**

**Choice 9: Find the attic, or Burn the house down?**


	20. Choice 8: Stay with Atem

“Be careful,” you told him, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze, “we don’t exactly know if we’re safe in here or not.”

He gave you a small smile before walking to the chair and its matching table. You turned back to Atem and a second later he looked up from the book and met your eyes.

“This book is written in English. It’s hard to understand, but it seems to be talking about demons and dark magic.”

“Oh, great,” you aid with a wry tone, stepping closer to see the pages more clearly. Atem had always been better with reading foreign languages than you but you could still tell that this book was written in old English. He turned a few pages and occasionally there were illustrations of dark creatures. You realized with a start that you recognized most of them. You had done research for a few of your writing projects, wanting to play off ancient folklore and myths from other cultures to add an extra layer of mystery.

Your heart gave a particular leap of recognition when your eyes landed on a particular illustration. “That’s Agramon!”

Atem blinked once before looking back at you, “What?”

You reached out and pointed to the horned, furred, and fanged image. “Agramon, he’s said to be a demon that can bring people’s fears to life,” your eyes met his, “sound familiar?”

Atem’s eyes went wide at your claim and he looked down to read the words around the crude drawing. “From what I can tell, it says here that he is a powerful being. One who is…” he shrugged, “Eternal? It seems as though he’s...nearly impossible to kill. The only hope is to banish him or trap him with powerful spells.”

“Well I’m not sure any of us have been secretly studying witchcraft for years,” you sighed. “If we overcame our fears, shouldn’t he be letting us go by now?”

Atem shook his head, “Perhaps our strength has made us even more of a prize to him. And letting us find out more about him is a ploy to drain our hope.”

The odd, stricken tone of voice he had made you want to reach out and give him a reassuring hug. Even his strength seemed to be wavering now. You settled for running your hand up and down his back. When he looked over at you again, you managed to give him a small smile.

“His mistake. We’ll find a way out of this, Atem. If you can find a way to be the country’s Duel Monsters champion with his ultimate cards on the field, we can figure out how to beat him.”

For a moment, you thought he would return the smile. He almost did, but then his eyes flickered to your neck. The small cut there seemed to burn a bit at the memory of Yami placing the knife to your throat. Then his eyes traveled down to your wrists, where the cuffs of the guillotine had cut into your skin as you struggled.

“I already had my moment of weakness.” He reached out and brushed his fingers over the marks on your wrists. “I let my fear take over. I hurt you and Yugi. I almost killed the two people I love most.” With a heavy weight to them, Atem made his eyes meet yours again, his voice barely more than a whisper now, “I’m sorry. I don’t know how you’ve found it in your heart to trust me after something like that.”

A small lump gathered in your throat at his words, and before you could stop yourself you were reaching up and cupping his cheek. “That wasn’t you, Atem. Even in your darkest moment that wasn’t you. The fact that you’re scared of becoming that proves it’s not who you are. We overcame that together, and we’ll finish this together too.”

You were relieved as he seemed to lean into your touch for a moment. Then, he finally returned your smile, that strength seeming to come back tenfold.

“Together,” he agreed, placing his hand over yours and giving it a gentle squeeze before returning to the demon tome. “Now, let’s see if there’s more than demonic profiles in here.”

Together you two flipped through the pages, briefing over more grotesque images and doomsaying words until a new section was introduced. As far as you and Atem could tell, these were rituals and spells. Lists of herbs and stone, specifying certain metals that weakened certain demons. The thing that truly caught your attention, however, was the sudden notes hastily scribbled between the margins in Japanese. The notes were inked in thickly and with enough pressure that it almost seemed to tear through the old thick pages at times. Most didn’t make much sense, simply hasty thoughts like _“A path? The old crone must have used something like this.”_ or _“No use, can’t harness it.”_ But one that caught both yours and Atem’s attention, was a long frantically written entry scrawled along one side of a page about an unbinding spell. _“Almost there! I made a crack in the metal with this. I need something similar. More powerful. I can feel the demon's power radiating from it now. I’m so close. My light will be returned to me soon. I know it!”_

“Why was he trying to summon a demon?” You wondered out loud.

“Revenge most likely. This person was obviously mad,” Atem said as he turned and studied more pages.

Another few moments passed and a page littered with these notes popped out at you the moment he turned to it. _“Here! This is the one! The old witch's notebook confirms that this is the one she used. She was smart. Not only did it trap him, but it permanently weakened him. I am no fool, I know things may not go as I plan, but if they don’t, I can kill the demon with fire. The shadows are still whispering to me, but I must keep my mind strong! I have my tools, I can get my dearest Himiko back, I know it! But if worst comes to worst, I’ll burn myself, this house, and the demon to the ground.”_

You and Atem met eyes the moment you read the entry. He opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Yugi called out to all of you.

“Guys! You’ll want to take a look at this.” Yugi waved the book in his hand before flipping it open to a handwritten page. “This is a journal from the man who used to live here. He wrote about how he was trying to find a way to bring his daughter Himiko back to life.” Yugi then pulled an only photo from between the pages and held it up, “She was the one who showed us this room. She’s trying to help us. Her father eventually found a demon that had been locked away by a witch and spent years trying to free it from a locket.”

“Why the hell would he do that?” Mai asked from the other side of the room where she, Jonouchi, and Anzu stood.

Yugi looked up from the book with sad eyes. “He thought that freeing it would get him a wish and he could ask to have Himiko back.”

“That corresponds with this then,” Atem brandished the tome the two of you had been studying. “This is a book on demonology and dark magic. I think he found the spell the witch used to seal the demon away, as well as the corresponding ritual to unbind him from the prison of the locket.”

You crossed your arms as you added, “I also have a suspicion that he didn’t realize what kind of demon he was freeing. I think he actually freed Agramon, a demon that brings your worst fears to life.”

“Alright, so how do we kill this fear demon?” Anzu asked.

“Originally, there isn’t a known means of defeating him,” Atem explained, “But, there are notes written in this book and according to the man who started all this, the witch who trapped the demon was able to weaken him. It seems as though we can kill it with fire.”

Jonouchi made a noise, then turned to an odd something covered in a sheet near where he was standing. “That explains this then.” He grabbed the cloth and pulled the sheet off of the pile with one hard motion.

Your eyes went wide when you saw what it was. Gasoline, canisters and canisters of it, the metal slightly rusted from who knows how long of sitting there.

“Let’s light this place up and be done with it,” Jonouchi said with a wave at the gasoline. “Kill the house kill the demon, right?”

“Do you really think it’s that simple?” Anzu asked, crossing her arms and looking a bit nervous. “I doubt this demon will let us destroy is so easily.”

“The man said in his last journal entry that he was going to perform the ritual in the attic,” Yugi offered, “maybe we should try to find more answers there?”

Mai scoffed, “Do we really want to waste the time? The thing hasn’t been able to get to us the whole time we’ve been snooping around this room, so maybe its power is weakened now. I say we knock over a few of those canisters, light a match, and hightail it out of here while the flames do their magic.”

You bit your lip before sounding off your own opinion. Much like with the girl in the hallway, you saw both sides of the argument. So, search for even more answers, or take the ones you have and burn this hell house down?

**~**~**

**Choice 9: Find the attic, or Burn the house down?**


	21. Choice 9: Find the attic

“If we have a chance to get more answers we should take it,” you offered when a moment of silence hung between everyone, “We shouldn’t take this demon too lightly, any information we can get on it could be the difference between us getting out of here alive or being eaten up by nightmares.”

Yugi nodded, “Exactly. Now, we just have to find out where the attic is.” His brow furrowed then and he cast a wary look at the door. “I’m worried that the moment we step outside more of those things will come after us, this seems to be the only room protected from the demon’s influence.”

“Maybe that Himiko girl is protecting us,” Anzu offered, “and maybe she’ll keep protecting us while we look for the attic.”

“Or maybe it’s more simple than that,” you interjected. Your eyes had been wandering the room as they talked and had landed on a set of sliding doors at one end of the room. The same end the gasoline happened to be stacked in. You walked towards the doors as you said, “These traditional-style houses usually had the attic space accessible through one or more closets in the bigger rooms.”

You had to take a short breath to brace yourself as you grabbed the end of the door. Something about opening a closet in a house full of horror movie staples just set your nerves off. You slid the door open with a bang and thankfully no ghoul or dead thing popped out at you. Everyone else seemed to crowd behind you and look over your shoulder as you peered up at the dark ceiling of the closet. There it was. A simple square with a door for you to crawl through and empty shelves along the wall to use as steps.

“So...who’s going first?” Mai asked.

“I will.” Though Mai had been half-joking Atem stepped up to the task without a second thought.

You saw Jonouchi shake his head as you turned back to the others. “No, I’ll do it. I got more fighting experience and if something’s waiting for us up there I don’t want any of you getting caught by it.”

“You’ve been fighting enough, Jonouchi, let me take the risk this time,” Atem argued as you let out a small sigh.

You turned to peer back up at the crawl space as Jou waved his hand with a mix of irritation and inpatients, “Quit being all self-sacrificing all the damn time, Tem! I’ll do-”

Yugi shouting your name in fright drew both men’s attention as you began crawling up the steps to the hatch.

Despite your hands shaking and your heart pounding, you still ignored their chorus of calls as you reached up to the doorway. “Get back down here!” Atem hissed. “The hell do you think you’re doing!?” Jou and Mai both scolded. “Please be careful!” Yugi and Anzu chimed in together. You again took a deep breath before unlatching the lock and shoving on the hatch door with enough force to send it thudding to the floor of the attic. You darted back a bit, staring up into the darkness above with your nerves screaming at you to run away and never come back.

Nothing popped out at you, so there was only one thing to do next. “You guys coming?” you asked as you looked down at everyone gathered below.

Atem didn’t leave room for argument this time. He elbowed past the others and stepped up the steps behind you. Yugi quickly followed leaving Jou to curse as he queued up behind Yugi with the girls lining up after him. With them ready and waiting right behind, you braced yourself and started climbing up into the attic.

Dust kicked up and flew up in your face as you disturbed the long-forgotten scene. You coughed a bit as you straightened up and looked over the room, hearing everyone climbing up behind you. It was a large space, with a window letting in some sunlight at the end. Shelves, a few chairs, nicknacks, and trunks piled up here and there. The thing that drew attention to itself, however, was the circle of symbols and runes scratched into the floor at the center, the candles surrounding it, and the human-sized lump atop it.

You covered your mouth as the others stepped up beside you. “I think that’s Mister Hamasaki,” you whispered, and took note of the dark, long dried stains pooling out from his body.

Atem reached out and brushed his hand along your back for a moment of comfort, before taking cautious steps towards the still form. Yugi went after him and the rest of you followed.

“I don’t see anything besides the candles and the summoning circle,” Yugi said as he examined the area.

Atem took it the extra step and kneeled down beside the body, looking it over for any more clues. The only solace was that the body wasn’t in some putrid step of the decaying process, he looked almost mummified by the time that had passed. Still, you hated the idea of disrespecting his body if you had to move it to find more answers.

“I don’t see anything on his person,” Atem concluded, “I don’t think be brought anything up here besides the tools to free the demon from the locket.”

“And that,” Anzu added, nodding to the spot beside an old bookshelf. It was smaller than the containers in the room below, but it was undoubtedly filled with more gasoline.

“Speaking of the locket,” Mai interjected, “Where is it?”

Yugi let out a small sigh as he reached out to the man’s body, whispering a “sorry about this” before he lifted the man’s arm. It made a horrible crinkled and crackling noise, but Yugi only moved it as much as he needed to before gently setting the arm back down. He held up something gold and twisted from a chain. The remains of a locket, scorched and torn open when the demon had been released.

“I always hated that cheap old thing.”

The new, deep voice made everyone jump at once and you found yourself turning towards the window at the end of the attic. There stood something you never thought you’d see outside of a demonology book or horror movie, then again, you didn’t expect anything that had happened today to plague you in real life. It was a vaguely feminine being, with large curling horns sprouting from her forehead, long silky black hair cascading down her back, somewhat purple skin, and long legs that ended in hooves.

Yugi and Atem jumped back from the body, backing up until they were closer to the rest of you and farther from the demon. She continued her little speech, looking only half interested as she leaned against the window, the light casting her in a strange glow.

“Of course I supposed any prisoner would hate the jailhouse they were kept in, but really that old bitch could have picked something more stylish for me to be trapped in for decades.” She smiled as she looked all of you over, then took a few steps closer, her arms still crossed as she continued. “I am so _very_ impressed by the six of you. Truly, in all my time haunting this place, out of all the groups and families I’ve trapped here, you are by far the ones who put up the most fight! Not only that, but so entertaining to watch! I mean, usually a person’s fears are simple. The dark, spiders, being eaten alive by ghouls, snakes, things like that. But not you kids! Oh no, I got to play with so much!” She waved at Jonouchi, “A man who spends every day worried that he’ll fail his sweet, sickly sister,” her eyes snapped to Mai, “a cold bitch of a woman who’s scared of dying alone,” her smile grew as she turned to you and Anzu, “sad cases haunted by nightmares of their past,” a hand held up to the twins, “and don’t even get me started on the brothers who are scared of themselves!” The demon closed her eyes and hummed as if she had just taken the last bite of a gourmet meal, “All of you were such a delight to toy with, and you survived everything I threw at you! You’re standing here, trying to find a way kill me, bruised and bleeding- but_ still fighting_!” She clapped her clawed hands together with a mad laugh. “Just so utterly delicious!”

“Are you done now?” Atem snapped and the demon looked almost hurt by his remark.

“You can’t hurt us now, can you?” Yugi cut in before she could say something in response to Atem. “I think you’re powerless now that we’ve conquered our fears, aren’t you?”

The demon sighed with a dramatic air. “You’re partially right, little man. I myself can not physically harm you, just as I can’t touch anything, or else I would have moved that eyesore long ago,” she waved a disgusted hand at Mister Hamasaki’s body, “that’s the constraints of the overwhelming power Agramon's children are blessed with. Now, I can still play on your worst fears. Even though you’ve overcome your fears together, I can still use those thoughts to conjure up an ax-wielding maniac or two. But...I won’t.” Her smile grew to a new sickening degree and her eyes swirled with red. “Oh no, you see there’s another fear each of you are harboring. A fear that all of you share!”

You couldn’t even gasp as you felt something tighten around your neck in a flash. A scream was cut off from your throat as you were hoisted into the air. You grabbed something scratchy at our neck, throat burning and aching in pain as your feet kicked weakly in the open air. You managed to open your eyes when you heard shouting and you saw to your horror that Yugi and Atem were handing and kicking beside you; nooses wrapped tight around their necks. Your eyes darted down below where the shouts were coming from. A pit had opened beneath Mai, Anzu, and Jou and now the three were fighting to escape as sand poured into the pit at an alarming rate.

A glass lid shut above the pit as the demon cackled, “All of you are scared to death of having to helplessly watch your friends die!”

Your mind was already starting to haze. You couldn’t breathe and the pain around your neck felt unbearable. The twins were flailing as helplessly as you and your friends below banged on the glass door of their pit frantically.

In a wisp of pale mist, you saw two figures appear behind the mad laughing demon. A young girl with tears streaming down her face and an older man with eyes full of helpless guilt. You stared back at them for a long moment, and the thought that you had to join them now came unwelcomed to your mind.

But then, you saw them move. Himiko pointed down to her right ankle and Mister Hamasaki patted his pocket. That’s right, you still had tools at your disposal! A knife in your boot and a lighter in your pocket.

With what little breath you could muster you called out to Atem and lifted your right leg until it was within his reach. It took much effort to do that and choke out the word knife, but you managed it if barely. Atem’s eyes went wide and he reached out in an instant, pulling the blade out with triumph and immediately working at his rope. The demon was too preoccupied with her gloating as she looked out the window to notice, regaling about how the six of you were her “prize catch”.

The blade was sharp enough that it only took a few good swipes to cut free. Atem landed on the ground with the grace of a cat and silently turned to climb up on something near Yugi- after you had urged him to take care of his brother first with a few frantic kicks, anyway.

You were doing your best to hold on, to lessen the rope’s hold with your grip as much as possible, but your vision was closing in around the edges. The sounds of friends screaming and demons cackling meshed together in a noisy heap as you closed your eyes. You tried to breathe in as much as possible, but it felt like your throat had taken in all it could. Your legs stopped kicking and you wondered, if only faintly, if the others could get your lighter before making their escape.

Then light and sound and air- sweet glorious air flooded your body and senses. You gasped and coughed as arms wrapped around you and a gentle voice told you it was okay. Yugi held you close, his own voice hoarse and he tried to avoid nicking you with the knife in his hands, the one that he had used to cut you free.

You registered him taking a brief moment to brush some stray hairs from your face before urging you to hop down from the trunk you two were perched on. That’s when you noticed the mad ravings of the demon. You looked down and saw that Atem had broken the glass over Jou and the girls and now the three were ignoring said glass biting into their skin as they climbed out of the sand-filled pit.

“How!?” The demon screeched, helpless by her own omission to do anything as you and our friends once again escaped her trap. “How have you endured everything that I’ve thrown at you!? Everyone else who stepped foot into this house had so little fight in them when I did my worst!”

She was so enraged that she didn’t even care to notice both of the spirits behind her smiling with righteous triumph. Then the two faded away in a billow of white mist, but not before said mist kicked up an impossible gust of wind that knocked the container of gas over.

Again the demon howled in rage as the liquid spilled out and the six of you scrambled for the hatch in the floor. “Damn you two, when will you caspers stop meddling in my fun!?”

One of the boys was holding tight to your wrist, trying to pull you downstairs, but you just needed a moment. It was almost comical how the demon’s rage turned to mute horror when you pulled out the light and flicked it to life. You wanted to say some quippy catchphrase, to get the last word in the thing that had obviously killed and ruined the lives of so many. But no, you were sure your eyes said all they needed to as you started the demon down, and dropped the lighter in the pooling gasoline.

A scream so loud it rattled the walls sounded as you jumped through the hatch. Arms caught you but you didn’t have time to see who it was before you and your friends were charging for the door of the study. Smoke already filled your nostrils and the walls were quickly coating with fire as you ran down the hallway.

Your heart stopped when you saw no front door at the bottom of the stairs. Oh god, had you just trapped you and your friend inside a burning house?!

No one even had time to comment on the lost door before mist rose up from the floor of the genkan. The wood of the wall fell away in a crash, revealing the door you had come through. None of you were ones to look a gift horse in the mouth, apparently, because no one made a comment as you all ran down the steps two at a time. The door slid open with a bang just as you reached it and fresh open air assaulted your senses as you burst through the threshold and ran down the pathway.

Only when you were all several yards from the house did any of you dare stop running. You weren’t sure it was a good idea even then, but the urge to see the house burning was too great. You stood, bruised and bloody but very much alive with your friends and watched the thing that housed nightmares burn like a match.

“Guys, look!” Anzu pointed into the flames- no, not the flames themselves, but something standing on the path between you and the house.

Himiko and her father looked almost alive as they stood together, joy written on their faces as they smiled at all of you. Mister Hamasaki put his arms around his daughter and both of them mouthed the same words. _“Thank you.”_

And with that, their forms dissolved, whisps of something that almost sparkled floating up into the sky. Two spirits finally free of their torment.

Within the heartfelt moment, you realized that you were standing between Atem and Yugi, and a sudden urge came over you. You wanted to reach out and take his hand while you watched the house come down...

~**~

**Well, how about that? You beat the demon and survived everything it threw at you! Well done. You now get to choose your happy ending. Who will get your affection? Will you come back and read the chapters for the brother you didn't pick the first time? It's all up to you. Thank you so much for reading this adventure, I hope you guys had fun! Let me know what you thought in the comments and I'd also love to hear how many times you died while reading, out of morbid curiosity haha~**

**For Atem's ending, go to the chapter titled " *** "**

**For Yugi's ending, go to the chapter titled " ~~~ "**


	22. Choice 9: Burn it down

“I’m with Jonouchi and Mai,” you said after a moment of silence hung in the air, “If Himiko showed us this room, she obviously wanted us to put an end to this demon, but we shouldn’t be wasting more time here than we need to. The demon’s obviously tied to this house, so if we burn it down, chances are it dies too.”

All of you seemed to turn to Atem then, who was the only one who hadn’t given his own opinion. He closed his eyes for a moment, took in a deep breath, then opened them again.

“Alright, if we’re smart about it, I think we can do it.”

Jonouchi rubbed his hands together and grabbed one of the old canisters. “Let's do this then!”

Yugi put his hands on the blonde’s shoulder with wide eyes, “Hey, wait! Don’t you think it’s a good idea to make sure we can get out of the house before we start the fire?”

Jonouchi’s mouth hung open a minute, an embarrassed hue creeping on to this cheeks. “Uh...yeah, that’s a good idea, Yug.” He actually gave a nervous chuckle before setting the canister back upright.

“So what’s the plan?” Mai asked as she crossed her arms.

Atem and Yugi shared a short look, doing that “twin thing” they did when both of their minds were working out a puzzle. It had always amazed you how they could seemingly silently strategize together.

“What about a human chain?” Yugi said after a few long moments.

Anzu quirked a brow, “What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re still wary that the demon will try to kill us when we step back into the other parts of the house. This room seems to be the only one protected from its influence,” Atem started, “We don’t want to separate, but if we leave this room, who knows, we may never find our way back to it if the illusions it cast before are any example.”

Yugi picked up the explanation seamlessly, “But, if one of us stays in this room, the next person could stay within half a meter of them, then the next person stays close to that person, and so on, we can make a human chain at least somewhat close to the front door. The person at that end of the chain can make sure our way out is still clear and send the message down the line to the person waiting back here.”

“Then the person on this end sets the fire,” Jonouchi caught on.

“And we all make a break for it,” you concluded.

Atem nodded. “With any hope, each of us being no more than a few dozen centimeters from each other should keep any of us from getting caught in an illusion. So far such things have only happened when the person is alone or far away from anyone else.”

“Sounds like our best bet if we don’t want to get caught up in this demon’s games again,” Anzu said.

Mai hummed in agreement, “I still think it’s a good idea to spread the gasoline now. That way the person on this end just has to light a match before booking it. We want to save as much time as possible the moment we step out that door.”

Everyone nodded at that and, without any more comments to add, Jonouchi once again grabbed a canister and started working at the rusted lid.

“I’ll be the one on this end,” he offered, his tone leaving no real room for argument, “I can book it fastest when I set the fire.”

With that, Jounouchi unscrewed the lid, aimed the spout to the farthest corner of the room, and let it pour. All of you made for the door. Atem was cautious enough to open it slowly and when the coast was clear the six of you huddled in the doorway and immediate hall.

Jonouchi stood firm on the threshold, but looked over his shoulder as he said, “Anyone got a light?”

You reached into your pocket, glad of your thoroughness when ransacking the shed in the forest, “Here’s should this should do the job just fine.”

He caught the lighter with ease when you tossed it to him, “Alright, what’re the rest of you guys waiting for? Let’s get moving.”

Mai silently offered to be the next link in the chain by grabbing Jonouchi’s free hand in her own. After giving his a moment’s long look, she walked in the direction of the stairs as far as their arms would allow. Anzu stepped up next, taking Mai’s other hand and repeating the step. Atem urged Yugi to go next with a slight nudge, but when he turned to do the same with you, you shook your head.

“No, I’ll see if the doorway’s still open.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, his gaze going hard for a moment, but when Jonouchi called out for all of you to keep going, he let out a low growl before moving down the chain to link hands with Yugi.

You took a deep breath and went after him. Atem grabbed your hand the very second it was within reach and you walked as far as you could but-

“Damn it! I’m still over a meter away from being able to see around the corner!” You cursed, all but clawing at the air as you couldn't see a damn thing.

With the only option staring you in the face, you had to swallow a sudden lump in your throat. Yugi must have known what you were thinking, because you heard his voice call out firm and almost pissed off.

“Don’t do it- don’t you dare!”

You glanced over your shoulder just as you felt Atem’s grip tighten around yours almost painfully. “I just need to see it for a second, I’ll be fine.

“No!” Atem tried to pull you back as he shouted, but he couldn’t keep hold of you when you wrenched your hand away from his.

You bolted, it only took a few steps to round the corner and when you did, you wanted to cry in relief. You were about to turn back and signal the good news of no danger insight to your friends, but before you could Yugi practically screamed your name.

“Behind you!”

Your blood froze as you felt something cold swing past your face as you jerked your body on instinct from the warning. You were unsteady and hit your head on the wall as something crashed into it beside your head. Looking up in horror you saw that the Anzu’s stalker, alive and mad with rage, had come at your from an adjacent hallway.

He let out a mad laugh, just as Mai screamed from somewhere down the hallway. “You should have checked the attic!” he cackled, pulling his ax from the wall.

The twins were calling out to you, but you had to dodge again as the man swung again. You chanced a glance in the direction of the others and saw a few flashed that registered in your mind. The faceless undertakers from Mai’s nightmare had both of the girls as Jonouchi desperately tried to fight them off. Yugi and Atem were rushing towards you but then a flash something else darting out from the shadows.

With a crack Yugi was sent to the ground in a cry of pain, holding his face as red leaked between his fingers.

“Naughty little Aibou, trying to leave before finishing our game?” the thing you called Yami mocked, brandishing the bat in his hand with joy, “Quitters have to pay a penalty game!”

“Yugi!” Atem yelled as Yami raised his bat high.

Atem wouldn’t get to him in time. You darted for him too, but you had lost track of your own attacker and your heart stopped when he called out in rage.

“Don’t turn your back on me you little pest!”

You weren’t so lucky in dodging the ax that time around.


	23. ***

Atem’s eyes went wide when he felt your fingers wrap around his even before he looked over at you. When he did though, his eyes softened and he returned the gentle grip as an equally light smile spread across his face. You had survived that nightmare together, you and your friends were safe, you were finally free from your fears. Atem didn’t take his eyes off of you as you both stood there basking in that silent knowledge.

***

To no one's real surprise but everyone’s profound relief, Mai’s car started without any trouble when the six of you made it back to the main road. Anzu mentioned how she was worried the fire would spread to the forest, but you couldn’t even see the smoke from the house, so somehow you weren’t too concerned.

All of you debated the idea of going to the nearest hospital, after all, every one of you had some injury or another, but after some accounting of everyone’s scratches, the idea was forgoed. Atem was a bit (a lot) annoyed that you refused to go to the hospital, seeing as how you were the most injured, but you won the argument when you showed him that the cut on your thigh wasn’t as bad as it had looked. You hadn’t even bled through the bandage he put on it!... Atem didn’t appreciate that bit of dark humor, but it won the argument all the same.

Of course, showing up to the resort covered in scratches, dirt, some blood, and plenty of bruises made for quite the scene. The staff were frantic until Mai popped off with some quickly thought up story of how she accidentally drove her car off the road and into the ruins of a demolished house on the way there. That stalled most of the questions and the staff quickly showed you to your rooms with a few nervous glances.

The six of you were determined to enjoy your vacation, hell house, car wrecks, and bloody states be damned!

That night, after long showers and patching each other up with the resort’s first aid kits, you and your friends were actually relaxing in the largest of your rooms. Jonouchi was still going on about the amazing meal and dessert you had just enjoyed and Yugi was reading off a few options of things to do before bed from the resort brochure. Everyone was voting between ping pong and the late-night movie options when you felt a hand brush down your back.

You looked over and saw Atem looking at you with those gentle eyes. “If it’s alright, could we take a walk together instead? There’s something I want to show you.”

Something light fluttered in your chest and you didn’t even think twice before nodding your head. You’d have plenty of time to spend with your friends within this next week. Atem excused the two of you from the rest of the group, saying you would catch up with them after the movie, before taking your leave together.

Atem took your hand, almost hesitantly, as he led you down the resort's hallways, but he relaxed when you returned the affection. You passed a few of the other guests as you went through the lounge area and onto the large porch area where guests could sit out under the stars or look out at the view of the sea. Atem didn’t stop there though, he led you down some wooden steps and onto a cobblestone pathway.

“I saw this when I took a walk by myself earlier,” Atem explained, “and one of the staff said that it’s even more beautiful at night, so I knew I had to share it with you.”

Just as he said that the two of you walked through an archway and you almost gasped at the beauty spread out before you. A garden, full of radiant flowers, some even still blooming in the dark. Blossom and willow trees blew in the gentle breeze, but that wasn’t all. Lights were woven through the branches, curled around every bush, and at the foot of the flowers. Some twinkled gentle, while others stayed lit, white and multicolored alike.

Atem continued to lead you down the pathway by his grip on your hand, the two of you taking your time as you wandered this wondrous scene. Eventually, when you spotted a bench to sit on, you took a seat together and enjoyed the view from there. Though, it wasn’t long before you traded the flowers and fairy lights for another view.

“Thank you for showing me this, Atem,” you said as you turned your pose to face him. You almost giggled at the slight blush that dusted his cheek at your words.

“A man should always say beautiful things with the person he cares for…” his eyes drifted down to your still clasped hands and lifted both of them to his mouth. He brushed his lips over the red marks still visible on your wrists before kissing them. “We’ve survived so much together, once again you and Yugi saved me from myself...I can’t begin to say how grateful I am or..or say how much I love you.”

You reached out, cupping his face in your hands as you felt tears welling up in your eyes. The look he gave you almost made them fall, but you just smiled before leaning in and kissing him. He understood your silent urge in an instant, _“if you can’t say it, then show me”_, and wrapped his arms around you tightly as he kissed back, matching your passion inch for inch.

The stars and lights twinkled on all sides of you, neither of you took any notice, too busy wrapped tight and safely in each other’s arms.


	24. ~~~

You were surprised when your hand was met with someone else reaching out at the same moment. Your eyes locked with Yugi’s as he squeezed your hand gently and gave you a smile to match. You returned the expression, feeling the tension slowly lift from your body in his presence. Yugi always had a way of making everything feel okay. Everything was going to be okay now, you and your friends were safe, the demon was defeated, the threat had passed. Everything felt hopeful as your eyes never left Yugi’s while you stood there together.

***

To no one's real surprise but everyone’s profound relief, Mai’s car started without any trouble when the six of you made it back to the main road. Anzu mentioned how she was worried the fire would spread to the forest, but you couldn’t even see the smoke from the house, so somehow you weren’t too concerned.

All of you debated the idea of going to the nearest hospital, after all, every one of you had some injury or another, but after some accounting of everyone’s scratches, the idea was forgoed. Yugi argued, saying you at least needed checked over, seeing as how you were the most injured. He was most worried over the nasty bump to your head, the one Mai had to help you clean the blood off of when you got back to the car, but you assured him that it was just a minor cut and bruise. You almost laughed at how pouty he looked under your argument, but when you promised that you’d tell him the moment you felt something was wrong, he relented and dropped the peeved expression.

Of course, showing up to the resort covered in scratches, dirt, some blood, and plenty of bruises made for quite the scene. The staff were frantic, until Mai popped off with some quickly thought up story of how she accidentally drove her car off the road and into the ruins of a demolished house on the way there. That stalled most of the questions and the staff quickly showed you to your rooms with a few nervous glances.

The six of you were determined to enjoy your vacation, hell house, car wrecks, and bloody states be damned!

Two days of relaxing at the resort did wonders for you and your friends. The hot springs did wonders for the bruises and aches, and the herbal baths helped keep the cuts from getting that angry red color. After those first two days, the six of you felt rejuvenated enough to explore the seaside town that was within walking distance of the resort. Shops, icecream parlors, and scenic pathways along the ocean were abundant here and you all had quite a bit of fun exploring the sweet little village.

Eventually, when the sun was just about to set, you took notice to Mai and Anzu whispering to each other as you all walked down the street along the sea. After a few only a moment of trying to listen in on what the girls were saying, Mai abruptly clapped her hands together and grabbed Jonouchi by the collar of his jacket.

“Look! There’s a cute spot for us to watch the sunset from!” she said, already pulling her boyfriend there, “Let’s go, guys!”

Jonouchi was muttering about how she didn’t need to pull him as Anzu grabbed Atem’s arm, threw a wink at Yugi, and ran in the same direction. You were confused to say the least, but when you made to walk after them, you felt someone touch your hand with a gentle call of your name.

“Hey, uh, would you like to take a walk down on the beach? Just the two of us?” Yugi asked, obviously trying to keep a blush from his cheeks.

You smiled at him and tightened the grip on his hand, feeling your own blush coming on as you nodded. “I’d really like that, Yugi.”

There was a set of stone steps leading down to the thin stretch of sand along the shore, just enough for people to walk along and enjoy the waves. Yugi seemed nervous as you two walked, and he kept patting his pocket with the hand that wasn’t holding yours. Eventually though, when you two found a spot just out of reach of the water’s waves that had a fantastic view of the setting sun, you two stopped walking and simply watched the sight together.

You leaned your head on Yugi’s shoulder and he instantly seemed to relax under the touch, leaning his head on yours and giving your hand an affectionate squeeze. A while of watching the setting sun passed before Yugi called out your name softly. You looked up at him and he turned his body to face you better.

“I wanted to give you something. You remember that spiritualist shop we visited earlier? Well, I saw these and I just...I knew I had to get them for you.”

From his pocket, he held out two metal charms that look quite old, possibly from the same time period the Hamasaki’s had lived. The charms were flat, with a simple but elegant border around each, and kanji engraved on them. One said “Inspiration” and the other read “Protection”. They were held together by a simple chain with two bells to match.

“They’re supposedly blessed,” Yugi continued, “I thought that the inspiration one would help you with your stories, and the protection one would...well. I just want to do everything I can to keep you safe.” His eyes looked over the still healing bruises and cuts, “I was so scared that I couldn’t protect you, that I’d be too weak to. But you believed in me, just like always.” He leaned in then, whispering your name as his eyes fluttered half-closed. “I just wanted to tell you how much you mean to me.” His lips brushed against yours. “How much I love you.”

Your heart was a pleased, fluttering mess as you grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in that last glorious bit it took to have your lips meet. He answered by wrapping his arms around you too, letting out the smallest of moans as he kissed you with all the passion he had been holding in.

The waves gently brushed against your ankles, but you couldn’t be bothered to move, not when the man you loved was kissing you like that.


End file.
